Gravitational fragmentation and formation of giant protoplanets on tens-of-au orbits

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution simulations to explore how gravitational fragmentation in protostellar disks can lead to the formation of giant protoplanets on tens-of-au orbits, highlighting the migration, mass loss, and collapse processes involved.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the migration and evolution of gaseous clumps, demonstrating how they can form giant protoplanets through inward migration and tidal interactions.

Findings

Gaseous clumps often migrate inward within 10^4 years.

Tidal torques cause clumps to lose mass and halt migration at tens of AU.

Clump interiors can reach temperatures >2000 K, leading to collapse into gas giants.

Abstract

Migration of dense gaseous clumps that form in young protostellar disks via gravitational fragmentation is investigated to determine the likelihood of giant planet formation. High-resolution numerical hydrodynamics simulations in the thin-disk limit are employed to compute the formation and long-term evolution of a gravitationally unstable protostellar disk around a solar-mass star. We show that gaseous clumps that form in the outer regions of the disk (>100 AU) through disk fragmentation are often perturbed by other clumps or disk structures, such as spiral arms, and migrate toward the central star on timescales from a few 10^3 to few 10^4 yr. The migration timescale is slowest when stellar motion in response to the disk gravity is considered. When approaching the star, the clumps first gain mass (up to several tens of M_Jup), but then quickly lose most of their diffuse envelopes through tidal torques. Part of the clump envelope can be accreted on the central star causing an FU-Ori-type accretion and luminosity outburst. The tidal mass loss helps the clumps to significantly slow down or even halt their inward migration at a distance of a few tens of AU from the protostar. The resulting clumps are heavily truncated both in mass and size compared to their wider-orbit counterparts, keeping only a dense and hot nucleus. During the inward migration, the temperature in the clump interiors may exceed the molecular hydrogen dissociation limit (2000 K) and the central region of the clump can collapse into a gas giant protoplanet. We argue that FU-Orionis-type luminosity outbursts may be the end product of disk fragmentation and clump inward migration, ushering the formation of giant protoplanets on tens-of-au orbits in systems such as HR~8799.