Type I migration in optically thick accretion discs

TL;DR

This study investigates Type I planetary migration within optically thick accretion discs, revealing how temperature-dependent opacity and viscosity influence the direction and speed of planetary movement through hydrodynamic simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed model of temperature and opacity effects on planetary migration, highlighting the impact of disc regions and viscosity on migration direction.

Findings

Planets in inner and outer disc regions tend to migrate outward.

Planets in the middle region tend to migrate inward.

Viscosity reduces the positive corotation torque, affecting migration direction.

Abstract

We study the torque acting on a planet embedded in an optically thick accretion disc, using global two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations. The temperature of an optically thick accretion disc is determined by the energy balance between the viscous heating and the radiative cooling. The radiative cooling rate depends on the opacity of the disc. The opacity is expressed as a function of the temperature. We find the disc is divided into three regions that have different temperature distributions. The slope of the entropy distribution becomes steep in the inner region of the disc with the high temperature and the outer region of the disc with the low temperature, while it becomes shallow in the middle region with the intermediate temperature. Planets in the inner and outer regions move outward owing to the large positive corotation torque exerted on the planet by an adiabatic disc, on the other hand, a planet in the middle region moves inward toward the central star. Planets are expected to accumulate at the boundary between the inner and middle regions of the adiabatic disc. The positive corotation torque decreases with an increase in the viscosity of the disc. We find that the positive corotation torque acting on the planet in the inner region becomes too small to cancel the negative Lindblad torque when we include the large viscosity, which destroys the enhancement of the density in the horseshoe orbit of the planet. This leads to the inward migration of the planet in the inner region of the disc. A planet with 5 Earth masses in the inner region can move outward in a disc with the surface density of 100 g/cm^2 at 1 AU when the accretion rate of a disc is smaller than 2x10^{-8} solar mass/yr.