A&A 483, 633-642 (2008)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:200809453
A. Pierens - R. P. Nelson
Astronomy Unit, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Rd, London, E1 4NS, UK
Received 25 January 2008 / Accepted 11 March 2008
Abstract
Aims. We present the results of hydrodynamic simulations of the formation and subsequent orbital evolution of giant planets embedded in a circumbinary disc. The aim is to examine whether or not giant planets can be found to orbit stably in close binary systems.
Methods. We performed numerical simulations using a grid-based hydrodynamics code. We assume that a
core has migrated to the edge of the inner cavity formed by the binary where it remains trapped by corotation torques. This core is then allowed to accrete gas from the disc, and we study its orbital evolution as it grows in mass. For each of the two accretion time scales we considered, we performed three simulations. In two of the three simulations, we stopped the accretion onto the planet once its mass became characteristic of that of Saturn or Jupiter. In the remaining case, the planet accreted disc material freely in such a way that its mass became higher than Jupiter's.
Results. The simulations show different outcomes depending on the final mass
of the giant. For
(where
is Saturn's mass), we find that the planet migrates inward through its interaction with the disc until its eccentricity becomes high enough to induce a torque reversal. The planet then migrates outward, and the system remains stable on long time scales. For
(where
is Jupiter's mass) we observed two different outcomes. In each case the planet enters the 4:1 resonance with the binary, and resonant interaction drives up the eccentricity of the planet until it undergoes a close encounter with the secondary star, leading to scattering. The result can either be ejection from the system or scattering out into the disc followed by a prolonged period of outward migration. These results suggest that circumbinary planets are more likely to be quite common in the Saturn-mass range. Jupiter-mass circumbinary planets are likely to be less common because of their less stable evolution, but if present are likely to orbit at large distances from the central binary.
Key words: accretion, accretion disks - planets and satellites: formation - stars: binaries: close - hydrodynamics - methods: numerical
Among the approximately 260 extrasolar planets known at the time of writing
(e.g. http://exoplanet.eu/), about 30 reside in binary or multiple-star
systems, with most of them orbiting one stellar component in
so-called S-type orbits (Eggenberger et al. 2004; Mugrauer et al.
2007). The majority of binary stars hosting planets have orbital
separation
100 AU. However, there are a few cases of short
period binary systems with
20 AU like Gliese 86,
Cephei and HD 41004 in which planets have been discovered to orbit at
1-2 AU from the primary (Eggenberger et al. 2004; Mugrauer & Neuhauser 2005). As suggested by studies of the long-term stability of planets in binary
systems (e.g. Holman & Wiegert 1999), close binaries with
1 AU can, in principle, harbour planets evolving on a P-type orbit which encircles
the two components of the binary system. One such circumbinary planet with
mass of
has been detected orbiting at 23 AU from the
radio pulsar binary PSR 1620-26. Another with mass of
was found evolving around a system which consists of the star
HD 202206 and its 17.4
brown dwarf companion (Udry et al. 2002). Because short period binaries are often rejected from observational surveys, circumbinary planets
have not yet been observed in binary systems composed of two main
sequence stars.
Several circumbinary discs, however, have been detected around spectroscopic binaries like DQ Tau, AK Sco and GW Ori. In GG Tau, the circumbinary disc has been directly imaged and
has revealed the presence of an inner disc cavity due to the tidal
torques exerted by the central binary (Dutrey et al. 1994). The
existence of these circumbinary discs combined with the fact that
50% of solar-type stars are members of binaries (Duquennoy
& Mayor 1991) suggests that circumbinary planets may be
common provided that planet formation can occur inside such discs.
To date, several theoretical studies focused on planet formation in
close binary systems indicate that planetesimal accretion should be
possible within circumbinary discs. Moriwaki & Nakagawa (2004) found
that planetesimals can grow in gas-free circumbinary discs only in
regions farther out that
13 AU from a binary with orbital separation
AU, eccentricity
and mass ratio
.
The influence of gas drag was studied
recently by Scholl et al. (2007) who showed that for a binary with the same
parameters, the eccentricity damping provided by the disc can enable
planetesimal accretion to occur in regions located below
4 AU from the central
binary. The later stages of planet formation in which Earth-mass
planets form by accumulation of embryos was investigated by Quintana
& Lissauer (2006). These authors found that planetary systems similar to those around
single stars can be formed around binaries, provided that the ratio
of the binary apocentre distance to planetary orbit is
0.2. In general binaries with larger maximum separations lead to
planetary systems with fewer planets.
Recently, the evolution of Earth-mass bodies embedded in a circumbinary disc and undergoing type I migration because of disc torques (e.g. Ward 1997) was examined by Pierens & Nelson (2007, hereafter referred to as Paper I). In this work, it was found that the inward drift of a protoplanet can be stopped near the edge of the cavity formed by the binary. Such an effect arises because in this region, the gradient of the disc surface density is such that the planet experiences strong positive corotation torques which can eventually counterbalance the negative differential Lindblad torque, thereby leading to the halting of migration (Masset et al. 2006). In a subsequent paper, Pierens & Nelson (2008a) extended this work by investigating the issue of how multiple protoplanets interact with each other if they form at large distance from the binary and successively migrate toward the cavity edge. The simulations performed by Pierens & Nelson (2008a) of pairs of planets interacting with each other indicated different outcomes such as resonant trapping or orbital exchange, depending on the ratio between the masses of the planets. Interestingly, in simulations involving more than two planets, planetary growth resulting from scattering and collisions between protoplanets was found to be feasible. This implies that giant cores might be formed in circumbinary discs, resulting eventually in a gas giant planet orbiting near the cavity edge.
The orbital evolution of Jovian mass planets embedded in circumbinary discs was studied by Nelson (2003). This work showed that giant planets undergoing type II migration (e.g. Lin & Papaloizou 1993; Nelson 2000) are likely to enter the 4:1 resonance with the binary. In that case, the subsequent evolution of the giant can be twofold, depending on whether or not the resonance is stable. For systems in which the 4:1 resonance is stable, the planet remains near or at the resonance. However, it appears that there is a finite probability for the system to be unstable, in which case the planet can be ejected from the system due to close encounters with the binary.
In this paper, we extend the work of Nelson (2003) by studying the
whole evolution of a circumbinary planet during its growth from a core into
a gas giant. To address this issue, we consider a scenario in
which a 20
core initially trapped at the edge of the cavity
can slowly accrete gas from the disc. As the planet grows, the onset of
non-linear effects as well as gap formation can exclude gas material
from the coorbital region, thereby cancelling the effects of
corotation torques. This can subsequently lead to the planet migrating inward again,
until it becomes trapped eventually in a mean motion resonance with
the binary. Here, we present the results of hydrodynamic calculations
aimed at simulating such a scenario. In particular, we want to examine
how the final outcome of the system depends on the accretion rate onto
the planet as well as on the final mass of the giant. Interestingly,
the results of the simulations indicate that only Saturn-mass giant planets can evolve stably
in circumbinary discs. Most of the calculations of embedded giants
with masses of
resulted in close
encounters between the planet and the binary, leading eventually to the planet
being completely ejected from the system.
This paper is organized as follows. In Sect. 2, we describe the hydrodynamical model. The results of the simulations are discussed in Sect. 3. We finally summarise and present our conclusions in Sect. 4.
We consider a 2D disc model in which all physical quantities are
vertically averaged and we work in polar coordinates
with the
origin located at the centre of mass of the binary. The equations governing the disc evolution as
well as the equations of motion for the binary plus planet system can
be found in Paper I. The equations for the disc are solved using the hydrocode
Genesis, which has been tested extensively against other codes
(De Val-Borro et al. 2006), and employs a second order
numerical scheme based on the monotonic transport algorithm (Van Leer
1977). Included in this code is a fifth-order Runge-Kutta integrator (Press et al. 1992) used to compute the evolution of the planet and binary orbits.
As in Paper I, we use
radial grid cells uniformly
distributed between
and
and
azimuthal grid cells. We adopt also the same computational units in
which the mass of the binary is
,
the gravitational
constant is G=1 and the radius r=2 in the computational domain
corresponds to 5 AU. The unit of time is
,
where
is the initial binary
separation. In the following, we report our results in units of the
initial orbital period of the binary
.
In this paper, the planet is allowed to accrete gas from the
disc. Accretion by the protoplanet can be modelled
by removing at each time-step a fraction of the gas
located inside the Roche lobe of the planet and then adding the
corresponding amount of matter to the mass of the planet (e.g. Kley
1999; Nelson et al. 2000). Here, the removal rate is chosen such that
the accretion time scale onto the planet is
,
where
is the orbital period of the planet. This corresponds to the
maximum rate at which the planet can accrete gas material (Kley
1999). In order to examine how the final outcome
of the system depends on the accretion rate, we have also performed
simulations with
=
.
When calculating the gravitational force between the disc and planet we adopt a gravitational softening parameter b=0.6H, where H is the disc height at the planet location. Material contained within the planet Hill sphere does not contribute to the gravitational acceleration experienced by the planet.
In Paper I, we presented the results of simulations of protoplanets
with masses of
5, 10 and 20
embedded in circumbinary
discs. We found that in each case, the inward migration of the
protoplanet is halted due to the action of corotation torques which
operate strongly at the cavity edge. Here, we extend the model
presented in this earlier paper and examine how such a trapped
protoplanet evolves as it accretes gas from the disc and
grows to become a giant planet. In order
to investigate this issue, we restarted one of the simulations presented in
Paper I for which
at a point in time when the
planet is trapped at the cavity edge. Therefore, in this new series of
simulations, the protoplanet evolves initially on an orbit with
and
,
which are the values for the
semi-major axis and eccentricity that a 20
body finally attains once
its migration has been stopped (see Paper I).
The initial semi-major axis and eccentricity of the binary are
and
respectively. These values
correspond to the ones that an initially circular binary
with
and mass ratio
ultimately attains as it interacts with a circumbinary disc. In Paper I,
we indeed showed that the evolution outcome of such a system is an
equilibrium configuration for which the disc structure as well as the
binary eccentricity remain unchanged. Interestingly, from the time
this quasi-steady state is reached, we found that the apsidal
lines of the disc and binary are almost aligned.
The disc model used in this work is the same as that of Paper I. Accordingly, the aspect ratio is constant and equal to H/r=0.05. The initial disc surface density
profile is presented in Fig. 1. For numerical reasons (see Sect. 2.3), we use a
low-density region from r=4 to r=6. From
to r=4, the surface
density is
where
is chosen
such that the unperturbed disc would contain 0.01
inside 10 AU (we
assume that the initial binary separation corresponds to 1 AU). We further
note that such a density profile corresponds to the equilibrium density
for an accretion disc with a constant kinematic viscosity (e.g. Gunther &
Kley 2002). In the inner parts, the disc presents an inner cavity which is created
self-consistently from simulations of binary-disc interactions (see Paper I). It is worthwhile to notice that here, the onset of non-linear effects due to the presence of
a 20
initially located at
can modify slightly
the gap profile.
We model the disc turbulent viscosity using the
``alpha'' prescription for the effective kinematic viscosity
(Shakura & Sunyaev 1973). In Paper I, we set
because using larger values caused the binary
separation to decrease too rapidly to allow an equilibrium
configuration to be obtained (see Paper I for details). In this work
however, we examine the evolution of giant planets undergoing type II migration. Because in that case the migration rate of the planet is controlled by the disc viscous evolution, we decided here
to use a more realistic
value, which probably lies in the range
10-3-10-2 in real circumstellar dics. In order to obtain a
disc model in which
,
the calculations were started
with
increasing slightly from 10-4 to the desired value in
1500 binary
orbits. Although not sufficient for a new equilibrium
configuration to be established, this gives a sufficient time to the binary plus disc system to
readjust to the new
value.
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Figure 1:
This figure shows the initial disc surface density
profile. The initial position of the planet with mass of
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In order to avoid any wave reflection at the outer edge of the computational domain, we impose a low-density region between r=4 and r=6 using a taper function.
At the inner boundary, we model the accretion onto the central star by
setting the radial velocity in the inner ghost zones to
,
where
is the gas drift
velocity at the disc inner edge due to viscous evolution and where
is a free parameter. Following Pierens & Nelson (2008b), we set
in the simulations presented here.
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Figure 2:
This figure shows the mass of the planet as a function
of time for simulations in which
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Figure 3:
This figure shows the evolution of the system for
models in which
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For each value of the accretion rate onto the planet we consider, we
have performed three simulations which differ in the final mass
attained by the giant. In the first and second calculations, we prevent
further growth of the planet once its mass becomes
(where
is Saturn's mass) and
respectively. In the last run
however, the final mass of the planet is not restricted and we allow
the latter to accrete gas freely from the disc. The mass of
the planet as a function of time is presented in Fig. 2
for each run.
For both values of
,
the semi-major axis evolution of a 20
body which grows to become a Saturn-mass planet is displayed in the upper panel of Fig. 3. In the model with
,
the planet mass reaches
at
,
and this mass is
attained at
in the model with
(see
Fig. 2). The orbital evolution of the planet is, however, very
similar in both cases and typically proceeds as follows. At the
beginning of the simulation, gap formation due to the growth of the
protoplanet can exclude material from the coorbital
region, which results in the (negative) differential Lindblad
torques being no longer couterbalanced by the (positive) corotation torques.
The planet thus migrates inward again. As it migrates,
the interaction with the central binary makes
increase slowly, as observed in the middle panel of Fig. 3
which shows the evolution of the eccentricities of the binary, disc
and planet for both values of
.
We define the disc eccentricity
by:
![]() |
(1) |
Once the planet eccentricity reaches
,
which occurs at
,
the migration of the planet stops and
then reverses. Previous work of Papaloizou & Larwood (2000) indicated
that an eccentric low-mass protoplanet can experience net positive disc torques when
,
owing to the latter
crossing resonances in the disc that do not overlap the orbit at
low-eccentricities. As pointed out by these authors, this occurs because a planet evolving on
a high eccentric orbit rotates more slowly than the disc at apocentre, which results in
the outer disc exerting a positive torque on the planet. Although here
the planet mass is in the Saturnian mass range, it appears that
the observed migration reversal is caused by a similar phenomenon. In
order to demonstrate that such an effect is at work here, we have
plotted in Fig. 4 the evolution of both the disc torques and
planet orbital position
over a few orbital periods of the
planet. In agreement with Papaloizou & Larwood (2000), the disc
torques exerted on the planet are positive (negative) when the latter is at
apocentre (pericentre). Clearly, there is a slight imbalance
between the positive and negative torques, due to the planet orbiting at a cavity edge,
which combined with the fact that the planet spends
more time at apocentre, favours a net positive torque on the planet
and outward migration. We note that in Fig. 4, there is a slight phase shift between the two curves which corresponds to the time needed for the planet to create an inner
(outer) wake at apocentre (pericentre).
| |
Figure 4:
This figure shows, over a few planetary orbital periods,
the evolution of the torques exerted
by the disc on the planet (solid line) as well as the time evolution
of the orbital the position of the planet |
| Open with DEXTER | |
Whereas this reversed migration proceeds very slowly until
104 P, subsequent evolution involves exponential growth of
the planet migration rate, which is characteristic of an episode of
runaway migration (Masset & Papaloizou 2003). Saturn-mass planets are
known to be good candidates for such a migration regime in massive
protoplanetary discs, due to their ability to create a coorbital mass deficit larger than
their own mass. As noticed by Masset & Papaloizou (2003), outward runaway
migration can eventually occur in discs with shallow surface
density profiles, provided that the planet initially migrates with a
significantly positive drift rate. Here, two effects contribute to
make such a phenomenon possible. First, prior to the
period of runaway migration, the planet migrates outward over
2
104 binary orbits, which is clearly larger than the
planet libration timescale. Second, the planet evolves in a region
of strong positive surface density gradient such that the coorbital
mass deficit increases as the planet migrates outward. This can be
seen for example in Fig. 5 which shows, for the model in
which
,
a series of surface density plots at different times.
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Figure 5:
This figure shows, for the model in which
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Interestingly, this period of outward runaway migration breaks at
104 P, which corresponds to the time when the planet
passes through the 5:1 resonance with the binary. This can excite the planet
eccentricity to such values that during the course of an orbit, the
radial excursion of the planet can exceed its coorbital width,
leading to the loss of the
coorbital mass deficit. The fourth panel in Fig. 5
displays the disc surface density just after the 5:1 resonance
crossing. Comparing this panel with the second one which corresponds
to a time when the planet is about to undergo runaway migration, it is clear
that the coorbital region is no longer depleted, which can prevent runaway
migration being sustained. This result is in broad agreement with the
calculations performed by Masset & Papaloizou (2003) which indicate a similar tendency for the runaway migration to not be maintained.
After the 5:1 resonance crossing, continuation of the runs indicates
that the planets undergo slow outward migration for
5
104 binary orbits and then migrate inward again. Due to the very
long run times required by these simulations, the final fate of the
planets remains uncertain. Nevertheless, it seems likely that continued
inward migration will proceed until the eccentricities of the planets are
high enough for the disc torques to become positive, resulting
eventually in the planets migrating outward again. Thus we expect
the long term evolution to consist of periods of inward followed
by outward migration until disc dispersal, resulting in a stable
Saturn-mass circumbinary planet.
The evolution of the longitudes of pericentre of the binary, disc and
planet is depicted in the lower panel of Fig. 3. As in
Paper I, we compute the disc longitude of pericentre according to the
following definition:
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(2) |
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Figure 6:
This figure shows the evolution of the system for
models in which
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| Open with DEXTER | |
For the two accretion time scales we consider, the orbital evolution of
a planet with final mass
is illustrated in the upper
panel of Fig. 6. In the model with
the planet
reaches one Jupiter mass in
5.5
103 binary orbits while it
reaches this mass in
1.4
104 orbits in the model with
(see Fig. 2). The early evolution of the planet is
similar to that described for Saturn-mass planets, involving inward migration of the planet and
continued growth of its eccentricity. However, contrary to models in
which
,
simulations with
resulted in the temporary formation of the 4:1 resonance between
the planet and binary (we note that migration reversal occurs for the planets
with
before they reach the 4:1 resonance).
For the calculation with
,
the time
evolution of the resonant angles
,
,
and
associated with the 4:1 resonance is
displayed in Fig. 7. These are given by:
![]() |
(3) |
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Figure 7:
This figure shows, for the simulation with
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A similar outcome is observed in the simulation with
.
Here the planet is scattered at
104 P and evolves subsequently on an orbit with significantly larger
semimajor axis (
)
and eccentricity (
.
Since a close encounter is generally a chaotic dynamical process, these values are quite different from the ones observed in the simulation with
.
In fact, these strongly depend on the encounter geometry and therefore may significantly differ from one simulation to the other.
![]() |
Figure 8:
This figure shows, for the model in which
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Prior to this close encounter however, the evolution of the planet differed noticeably from that corresponding to the model with
.
It appears that in the calculation with
=
,
the 4:1 resonance becomes rapidly
undefined after its formation, which arises at
104. This is because, compared with the run in which
,
the planet mass is significantly lower when the 4:1 resonance is established, leading to a weaker resonant locking. Once the resonance is broken, the planet is located just outside of the 4:1 resonance and migrates slightly outward until
104 P. Outward migration is induced by
positive disc torques due to the planet eccentricity having reached
after resonance breaking. Then, the planet
migrates inward and approaches the 4:1 resonance again,
but its eccentricity remains sufficiently high for there to be a close
encounter between the planet and central binary system leading to
the planet being scattered by the binary. The planet and binary
undergo multiple encounters during this phase, with significant changes
in their orbital elements occuring (see middle-right
panel of Fig. 6). The planet ends up orbiting interior
to the 4:1 resonance where it migrates inward toward the 3:1 resonance.
In both simulations, the evolution of the planet subsequent to this
initial scattering is quite similar. In the following, we use the
results of the simulation with
to discuss in more details
how the evolution of the system proceeds after this event.
At
,
interaction with the disc and central binary finally results in the
planet settling into an orbit further out in the disc with eccentricity
0.1-0.15. The planet now forms a gap in the disc
and begins to migrate inward slowly under type II migration.
The evolution of the disc and planet plus binary system for this
run is presented in Fig. 8, which shows snapshots of
the disc surface density at different times. The first panel corresponds to a time
shortly before the formation of the 4:1 resonance while the three
other ones display the state of the system just after the initial scattering. These show clearly that the inner disc is progressively lost through the inner boundary as a
result of viscous evolution, thereby
leading to a reduction of the (positive) inner disc torques
and consequently to the inward migration of the planet.
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Figure 9:
This figure shows the evolution of the system for
models in which
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| Open with DEXTER | |
At the end of the run with
,
the final fate of the planet
is still uncertain despite the very long time scale covered by the
simulation. However, it is likely that the continued inward
migration of the planet, combined with the growth of the eccentricities
of both the binary and planet (see middle panel of Fig. 6), will result
in further close encounters and eventually in the planet being
completely ejected from the system.
Such an outcome is observed in the calculation with
.
In that case, this arises because inward migration
of the planet causes the temporary formation of the 3:1 resonance
with the binary at
105 P, which makes the planet
eccentricity increase up to
.
This leads to close encounters
between the planet and the secondary star, resulting in the
scattering and ejection of the planet from the system.
The lower panel of Fig. 6 shows the evolution of the disc, binary and planet longitudes of pericentre for both models. Interestingly, we see that here the planet is aligned with neither the disc nor the binary. Therefore, relative to simulations with
,
the probability of close encounters between the planet and binary is increased, thereby leading to a system which is more likely to become unstable.
Lastly, we notice that the results of these runs are broadly consistent with previous hydrodynamical simulations of jupiter-mass planets embedded in circumbinary discs (Nelson 2003) which indicated that indeed, trapping into 4:1 resonance followed by a scattering through a close encounter with the binary is a possible outcome of such systems.
The evolution of accreting bodies with final masses
is depicted, for both values of the accretion time scale,
in the upper panel of Fig. 9. With respect to the
simulations presented in Sect. 3.2, here the calculations
differ in that the planet can continue to accrete gas once its mass
has attained
.
Although subsequent evolution may differ,
this implies that while
the evolution of the planet is the same
as the planets considered in Sect. 3.2.
Therefore, when discussing the results below, we consider only
the evolution of the system from the time when the planet mass
has reached
.
For the model with
,
the planet is in 4:1 resonance
with the binary when its mass reaches and exceeds that of Jupiter,
which arises at
103 P (see Fig. 2). Figure 10 displays the evolution of the resonant angles associated with the 4:1 resonance. Comparing this figure with Fig. 7, we see that the 4:1 resonance breaks at
103 P with
whereas it breaks at
104 P in the one with
.
This supports the idea that the resonant interaction
is stronger for higher planet masses. Once again, the resonance drives
the planet eccentricity up to
,
until the
planet undergoes a close encounter with the binary and
is subsequently ejected from the system at
104 P. Here, it is worth noting that
the planet mass is
when this occurs (see Fig. 2).
For the model with
,
the planet orbits just beyond the location of the 4:1 resonance with the binary when its mass attains
,
which corresponds to
104 P. From this point in time until
104 P, the orbital evolution of the planet is similar to that found in the model with
and
(see Sect. 3.2). Then, the large value of its eccentricity (
)
causes the planet to undergo a close encounter with the binary and to be scattered out. Interestingly, this scattering leads to the temporary formation of the 6:1 resonance between the planet and the binary at
104 P. As can be seen in the middle panel of Fig. 9, which shows the eccentricities of the
planet, disc and binary, trapping into 6:1 resonance makes
the planet eccentricity increase to
.
At
104 P, a close encounter between the binary and
planet occurs, and the planet is consequently scattered out
on a high eccentricity orbit with
.
Just after this scattering, the planet mass has reached
and the eccentricities of the disc and planet have attained
and
respectively. In agreement with Nelson (2003), we find that the interaction
between the eccentric disc and the eccentric planet induces
outward migration of the latter. The total torque exerted by the disc on the
planet, as well as the torques due to the disc interior and exterior to
,
are presented in Fig. 12. We see that the time-averaged
total disc torque is clearly positive from
104 P onward,
and that the torques oscillate with a period of
3
103 binary orbits. Interestingly, these time variations correspond closely
to the precession of the planet relative to that of the disc.
The reason for this is simply that the eccentric disc exerts an
orbit-averaged positive torque on the eccentric planet when the orbits are misaligned, and exerts a negative torque when the orbits are aligned. An antialigned configuration causes
the planet to interact with matter whose angular velocity is greater than
that of the planet at apocentre, and this leads to the planet
experiencing a strong positive torque.
At later times, the simulation indicates that the outward migration of the planet can be sustained over long time scales. There are a number of reasons for this. First, the planet maintains an eccentric orbit and experiences a strong positive torque at apocentre when the disc and planet orbits are antialigned; this positive torque experienced by the planet implies a negative torque experienced by the outer disc material, causing gas to flow through the planet orbit to form an inner disc. Figure 11 shows the state of the disc, planet and binary at different times. The first panel shows the disc just before the planet enters the 4:1 resonance, and the second panel shows the system just after the planet has been scattered outward. The third and fourth panels show the increase in inner disc size and the outward migration of the planet. During its transition from outer to inner disc, the disc material continues to exert a positive torque on the planet, manifested through a corotation torque. Moreover, the existence of an inner disc provides another source of positive Lindblad torques and assists the planet in maintaining outward migration.
Examination of the torques exerted by the disc on the planet
(see Fig. 12) shows that they weaken from
104 P. This is due mainly to the increase in gap size generated by the planet as it grows in mass,
combined with the fact that the disc contains a finite reservoir of
gas in our model. The increase in gap size clearly affects the torques
due to both outer and inner discs.
At the end of the run, the planet has migrated to the outer edge of the disc
and its mass has attained
.
This suggests that another
avenue for evolution of giant planets whose mass exceeds 1
is long-term
outward migration, in addition to the possibility of being scattered out
of the system as displayed by the runs described previously. Establishing
the ratio of these two outcomes will require a large suite of simulations
with slightly varying initial conditions, task which is beyond the scope
of the paper. It appears from our results, however, that the probability
of scattering and ejection is greater than that of prolonged outward migration.
![]() |
Figure 10:
This figure shows, for the simulation with
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Figure 11:
This figure shows, for the model in which
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| Open with DEXTER | |
In this paper we have presented the results of hydrodynamic simulations aimed at studying the formation and evolution of giant planets embedded in circumbinary discs.
We focused on a model in which a
core initially
trapped at the edge of the cavity formed by the binary can slowly
accrete material from the disc. We examined how the final outcome of
the system depends on the accretion rate onto the
planet and on the final planet mass attained. For each value of
the accretion rate considered, we performed three calculations.
In two of the three simulations, we assumed that accretion stops when
the mass of the planet has reached either
or
.
In the remaining case, we allowed the planet to accrete gas
freely from the disc in such a way that its final mass
was
.
The simulations show different outcomes,
depending on the final mass of the planet:
| |
Figure 12:
This figure shows, for the model with
|
| Open with DEXTER | |
A number of other issues remain to be resolved when considering the early stages of planet formation in circumbinary discs. For example, the question of whether or not planetary cores can grow due to planetesimal accretion needs to be examined in more detail. An eccentric binary can lead to the formation of an eccentric disc, in such a way that planetesimal accretion is prevented except in the outer regions of the disc. The ability of planetesimals to accrete, with care being taken to simulate the structure of the circumbinary disc, will be the subject of a future paper.
Another issue relates to the fact that we have only simulated a two dimensional system in this paper. The close encounters experienced by planets with the central binary are likely to produce significantly inclined orbits, and the resulting disc-planet interaction is likely to be modified (weakened) by this, leading to potentially different outcomes to those observed in our 2D runs. Given the very long evolution times involved, however, performing full 3D simulations is beyond current computational capability. There remains scope, however, for a more approximate 3D treatment of this problem.
Acknowledgements
The simulations performed in this paper were performed on the QMUL High Performance Computing facility purchased under the SRIF iniative.