Orbital evolution of eccentric planets in radiative discs

TL;DR

This study investigates how radiative protoplanetary discs influence the orbital eccentricity and migration of embedded planets, revealing eccentricity damping across various masses and challenging planet-disc interaction as a source of high exoplanet eccentricities.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of planetary eccentricity evolution in radiative discs using 3D hydrodynamical simulations, highlighting the damping effect regardless of planetary mass.

Findings

Eccentricity is damped for all planetary masses studied.

In radiative discs, low-mass cores can migrate outward after eccentricity damping.

Planet-disc interaction alone does not explain high exoplanet eccentricities.

Abstract

With an average eccentricity of about 0.29, the eccentricity distribution of extrasolar planets is markedly different from the solar system. Among other scenarios considered, it has been proposed that eccentricity may grow through planet-disc interaction. Recently, it has been noticed that the thermodynamical state of the disc can significantly influence the migration properties of growing protoplanets. However, the evolution of planetary eccentricity in radiative discs has not been considered yet. In this paper we study the evolution of planets on eccentric orbits that are embedded in a three-dimensional viscous disc and analyse the disc's effect on the orbital evolution of the planet. We use the three-dimensional hydrodynamical code NIRVANA that includes full tensor viscosity and implicit radiation transport in the flux-limited diffusion approximation. The code uses the FARGO-algorithm to speed up the simulations. First we measure the torque and power exerted on the planet by the disc for fixed orbits, and then we let the planet start with initial eccentricity and evolve it in the disc. For locally isothermal we confirm previous results and find eccentricity damping and inward migration for planetary cores. In the case of radiative discs, the planets experience an inward migration as long as its eccentricity lies above a certain threshold. After the damping of eccentricity cores with masses below 33 Earthmasses begin to migrate outward in radiative discs, while higher mass cores always migrate inward. For all planetary masses studied (up to 200 Earthmasses) we find eccentricity damping. In viscous discs the orbital eccentricity of embedded planets is damped during the evolution independent of the mass. Hence, planet-disc interaction does not seem to be a viable mechanism to explain the observed high eccentricity of exoplanets.