Interactions between a massive planet and a disc

TL;DR

This paper investigates the migration of massive planets in protoplanetary discs using high-precision numerical methods, revealing how such planets can become trapped with eccentric orbits after multiple disc crossings.

Contribution

It introduces a new high-accuracy integration method for planetary systems that accurately models gravitational interactions during planet-disc evolution.

Findings

Massive planets can migrate inward and become trapped in the disc.

The new integration method allows precise modeling of close encounters.

Planets can retain significant eccentricity after disc interactions.

Abstract

We analyse the potential migration of massive planets forming far away from an inner planetary system. For this, we follow the dynamical evolution of the orbital elements of a massive planet undergoing a dissipative process with a gas disc centred around the central sun. We use a new method for post-Newtonian, high-precision integration of planetary systems containing a central sun by splitting the forces on a particle between a dominant central force and additional perturbations. In this treatment, which allows us to integrate with a very high-accuracy close encounters, all gravitational forces are integrated directly, without resorting to any simplifying approach. After traversing the disc a number of times, the planet is finally trapped into the disc with a non-negligible eccentricity