A New Hybrid N-Body-Coagulation Code for the Formation of Gas Giant Planets

TL;DR

This paper presents an enhanced hybrid N-body-coagulation code for simulating gas giant planet formation, incorporating new algorithms for disk evolution, gas accretion, and planetesimal dynamics, validated through planetary system simulations.

Contribution

The paper introduces a comprehensive, updated hybrid code that integrates multiple physical processes for planet formation, enabling more realistic simulations of planetary system evolution.

Findings

Disks evolve into systems with super-Earths, Saturns, and Jupiters within 1-3 Myr.

Lower alpha disks produce more massive planets.

Jupiter-mass planets have solid cores of 10-100 Earth masses.

Abstract

We describe an updated version of our hybrid N-body-coagulation code for planet formation. In addition to the features of our 2006-2008 code, our treatment now includes algorithms for the 1D evolution of the viscous disk, the accretion of small particles in planetary atmospheres, gas accretion onto massive cores, and the response of N-bodies to the gravitational potential of the gaseous disk and the swarm of planetesimals. To validate the N-body portion of the algorithm, we use a battery of tests in planetary dynamics. As a first application of the complete code, we consider the evolution of Pluto-mass planetesimals in a swarm of 0.1-1 cm pebbles. In a typical evolution time of 1-3 Myr, our calculations transform 0.01-0.1 solar mass disks of gas and dust into planetary systems containing super-Earths, Saturns, and Jupiters. Low mass planets form more often than massive planets; disks with smaller alpha form more massive planets than disks with larger alpha. For Jupiter-mass planets, masses of solid cores are 10-100 Earth masses.