Core growth as function of time. The different orbital separations (5−8−15−20 AU) resemble the compact orbital configuration expected after disc dissipation (Tsiganis et al. 2005). The red points identify the critical mass where a phase of rapid gas accretion is triggered necessary for the formation of gas giants (Lambrechts et al. 2014). Core growth comes to a halt after reaching the critical core mass. The dashed lines represent an extrapolation ignoring this halt in accretion. The yellow shaded area marks the dissipation of the gas disc after τ_dis = 3 Myr.