Accretion of Uranus and Neptune from inward-migrating planetary embryos blocked by Jupiter and Saturn

TL;DR

This study uses N-body simulations to demonstrate that Uranus and Neptune could have formed from collisions among similar-sized planetary embryos beyond Saturn, supporting a collision-driven accretion scenario.

Contribution

It shows that similar-sized ice giants can form from planetary embryo collisions in the outer solar system, aligning with observed mass ratios and obliquities.

Findings

Similar-sized ice giants form from 5-10 planetary embryos.

Accretion scenario is plausible for Uranus and Neptune's origin.

Simulations reproduce observed mass ratios of ice giants.

Abstract

Reproducing Uranus and Neptune remains a challenge for simulations of solar system formation. The ice giants' peculiar obliquities suggest that they both suffered giant collisions during their formation. Thus, there must have been an epoch of accretion dominated by collisions among large planetary embryos in the primordial outer solar system. We test this idea using N-body numerical simulations including the effects of a gaseous protoplanetary disk. One strong constraint is that the masses of the ice giants are very similar -- the Neptune/Uranus mass ratio is $\sim1.18$. We show that similar-size ice giants do indeed form by collisions between planetary embryos beyond Saturn. The fraction of successful simulations varies depending on the initial number of planetary embryos in the system, their individual and total masses. Similar-sized ice giants are consistently reproduced in simulations starting with 5-10 planetary embryos with initial masses of $\sim$3-6 ${\rm M_\oplus}$. We conclude that accretion from a population of planetary embryos is a plausible scenario for the origin of Uranus and Neptune.