Angular Momentum Accretion onto a Gas Giant Planet

TL;DR

This study uses 3D hydrodynamical simulations to explore how gas accretes angular momentum onto protoplanets, revealing vertical flow patterns and mass-dependent angular momentum growth, with implications for satellite formation.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed 3D analysis of angular momentum accretion onto protoplanets, highlighting differences from 2D models and quantifying angular momentum growth relative to protoplanet mass.

Findings

Gas flows vertically crossing the shock near the Hill radius.

Angular momentum increases with protoplanet mass, j ∝ M_p for M_p < 1 M_J.

Total angular momentum exceeds that of current solar system gas giants.

Abstract

We investigate the accretion of angular momentum onto a protoplanet system using three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations. We consider a local region around a protoplanet in a protoplanetary disk with sufficient spatial resolution. We describe the structure of the gas flow onto and around the protoplanet in detail. We find that the gas flows onto the protoplanet system in the vertical direction crossing the shock front near the Hill radius of the protoplanet, which is qualitatively different from the picture established by two-dimensional simulations. The specific angular momentum of the gas accreted by the protoplanet system increases with the protoplanet mass. At Jovian orbit, when the protoplanet mass M_p is M_p < 1 M_J, where M_J is Jovian mass, the specific angular momentum increases as j \propto M_p. On the other hand, it increases as j \propto M_p^2/3 when the protoplanet mass is M_p > 1 M_J. The stronger dependence of the specific angular momentum on the protoplanet mass for M_p < 1 M_J is due to thermal pressure of the gas. The estimated total angular momentum of a system of a gas giant planet and a circumplanetary disk is two-orders of magnitude larger than those of the present gas giant planets in the solar system. A large fraction of the total angular momentum contributes to the formation of the circumplanetary disk. We also discuss the satellite formation from the circumplanetary disk.