Dust in brown dwarfs and extra-solar planets VI. Assessing seed formation across the brown dwarf and exoplanet regimes

TL;DR

This study investigates seed particle formation in brown dwarf and exoplanet atmospheres, identifying key materials and temperature-pressure conditions for nucleation, which influences cloud formation and atmospheric properties.

Contribution

It applies modified classical nucleation theory with literature data to identify potential seed materials across a wide range of atmospheric conditions in sub-stellar objects.

Findings

TiO₂ and SiO nucleate efficiently at 1000-1750 K

Cr, KCl, and NaCl nucleate at 500-1000 K

CsCl may seed water clouds in cool atmospheres

Abstract

The cloud formation process starts with the formation of seed particles, after which, surface chemical reactions grow or erode the cloud particles. We investigate which materials may form cloud condensation seeds in the gas temperature and pressure regimes (T$_{\rm gas}$ = 100-2000 K, p$_{\rm gas}$ = 10$^{-8}$-100 bar) expected to occur in planetary and brown dwarf atmospheres. We apply modified classical nucleation theory which requires surface tensions and vapour pressure data for each solid species, which are taken from the literature. We calculate the seed formation rates of TiO$_{2}$[s] and SiO[s] and find that they efficiently nucleate at high temperatures of T$_{\rm gas}$ = 1000-1750 K. Cr[s], KCl[s] and NaCl[s] are found to efficiently nucleate across an intermediate temperature range of T$_{\rm gas}$ = 500-1000 K. We find CsCl[s] may serve as the seed particle for the water cloud layers in cool sub-stellar atmospheres. Four low temperature ice species, H$_{2}$O[s/l], NH$_{3}$[s], H$_{2}$S[s/l] and CH$_{4}$[s], nucleation rates (T$_{\rm gas}$ = 100-250 K) are also investigated for the coolest sub-stellar/planetary atmospheres. Our results suggest a possibly, (T$_{\rm gas}$, p$_{\rm gas}$) distributed hierarchy of seed particle formation regimes throughout the sub-stellar and planetary atmospheric temperature-pressure space. In order to improve the accuracy of the nucleation rate calculation, further research into the small cluster thermochemical data for each cloud species is warranted. The validity of these seed particle scenarios will be tested by applying it to more complete cloud models in the future.