The Great Escape II: Exoplanet Ejection from Dying Multiple Star Systems

TL;DR

This paper studies how planets can be ejected from evolving multiple star systems due to mass loss, providing a criterion for planet retention and analyzing ejection probabilities across various system configurations.

Contribution

It introduces a new dynamical criterion for planet retention in multi-star systems undergoing mass loss and applies it to extensive stellar evolution simulations.

Findings

Planets at tens of AU are prone to ejection in multiple systems.

Multiple star systems are more likely to eject planets than single stars.

Systems over 2 Solar masses predominantly produce free-floating planets.

Abstract

Extrasolar planets and belts of debris orbiting post-main-sequence single stars may become unbound as the evolving star loses mass. In multiple star systems, the presence or co-evolution of the additional stars can significantly complicate the prospects for orbital excitation and escape. Here, we investigate the dynamical consequences of multi-phasic, nonlinear mass loss and establish a criterion for a system of any stellar multiplicity to retain a planet whose orbit surrounds all of the parent stars. For single stars which become white dwarfs, this criterion can be combined with the Chandrasekhar Limit to establish the maximum allowable mass loss rate for planet retention. We then apply the criterion to circumbinary planets in evolving binary systems over the entire stellar mass phase space. Through about 10^5 stellar evolutionary track realizations, we characterize planetary ejection prospects as a function of binary separation, stellar mass and metallicity. This investigation reveals that planets residing at just a few tens of AU from a central concentration of stars are susceptible to escape in a wide variety of multiple systems. Further, planets are significantly more susceptible to ejection from multiple star systems than from single star systems for a given system mass. For system masses greater than about 2 Solar masses, multiple star systems represent the greater source of free-floating planets.