Transport, destruction and growth of pebbles in the gas envelope of a protoplanet

TL;DR

This paper investigates how pebbles grow, are destroyed, and transported within a protoplanet's gaseous envelope, highlighting the dominant role of convective gas motion in pebble size evolution and transport.

Contribution

It introduces a simple model for pebble size evolution considering erosion, fragmentation, and convection-driven transport in a protoplanetary envelope.

Findings

Convective gas speeds exceed sedimentation speeds for particles smaller than 1 mm.

Pebble sizes near the protoplanet surface range from 100 microns to 1 millimeter.

Small protoplanets far from the star erode pebbles to sizes below 10 microns.

Abstract

We analyse the size evolution of pebbles accreted into the gaseous envelope of a protoplanet growing in a protoplanetary disc, taking into account collisions driven by the relative sedimentation speed as well as the convective gas motion. Using a simple estimate of the convective gas speed based on the pebble accretion luminosity, we find that the speed of the convective gas is higher than the sedimentation speed for all particles smaller than 1 mm. This implies that both pebbles and pebble fragments are strongly affected by the convective gas motion and will be transported by large-scale convection cells both towards and away from the protoplanet's surface. We present a simple scheme for evolving the characteristic size of the pebbles, taking into account the effects of erosion, mass transfer and fragmentation. Including the downwards motion of convective cells for the transport of pebbles with an initial radius of 1 millimeter, we find pebble sizes between 100 microns and 1 millimeter near the surface of the protoplanet. These sizes are generally amenable to accretion at the base of the convection flow. Small protoplanets far from the star (>30 AU) nevertheless erode their pebbles to sizes below 10 microns; future hydrodynamical simulations will be needed to determine whether such small fragments can detach from the convection flow and become accreted by the protoplanet.