The Effects of Metallicity, and Grain Growth and Settling on the Early Evolution of Gaseous Protoplanets

TL;DR

This study examines how metallicity and grain growth influence the early contraction and evolution of giant protoplanets, revealing that metallicity affects contraction timescales and potential for core formation.

Contribution

It provides new insights into how opacity variations due to metallicity and grain processes impact protoplanet contraction and survival, with implications for planet formation theories.

Findings

Higher metallicity leads to slower contraction due to increased opacity.

Grain growth and settling significantly shorten contraction timescales to about 1000 years.

Short contraction timescales limit heavy-element core formation via planetesimal capture.

Abstract

Giant protoplanets formed by gravitational instability in the outer regions of circumstellar disks go through an early phase of quasi-static contraction during which radii are large and internal temperatures are low. The main source of opacity in these objects is dust grains. We investigate two problems involving the effect of opacity on the evolution of planets of 3, 5, and 7 M_J. First, we pick three different overall metallicities for the planet and simply scale the opacity accordingly. We show that higher metallicity results in slower contraction as a result of higher opacity. It is found that the pre-collapse time scale is proportional to the metallicity. In this scenario, survival of giant planets formed by gravitational instability is predicted to be more likely around low-metallicity stars, since they evolve to the point of collapse to small size on shorter time scales. But metal-rich planets, as a result of longer contraction times, have the best opportunity to capture planetesimals and form heavy-element cores. Second, we investigate the effects of opacity reduction as a result of grain growth and settling, for the same three planetary masses and for three different values of overall metallicity. When these processes are included, the pre-collapse time scale is found to be of order 1000 years for the three masses, significantly shorter than the time scale calculated without these effects. In this case the time scale is found to be relatively insensitive to planetary mass and composition. However, the effects of planetary rotation and accretion of gas and dust, which could increase the timescale, are not included in the calculation. The short time scale we find would preclude metal enrichment by planetesimal capture, as well as heavy-element core formation, over a large range of planetary masses and metallicities.