Giant planet migration during the disc dispersal phase

TL;DR

This study uses 2D simulations to show that giant planet migration halts when the inner disc is depleted by photoevaporation, challenging previous impulse approximation models and informing better migration prescriptions.

Contribution

It demonstrates that planet migration stops once the inner disc is cleared, providing a more accurate model for planet evolution in transition discs compared to impulse approximation.

Findings

Migration ceases when the inner disc is depleted of gas.

Impulse approximation overestimates inward migration in transition discs.

A new threshold surface density of 0.01 g/cm^2 is proposed for models.

Abstract

Transition discs are expected to be a natural outcome of the interplay between photoevaporation (PE) and giant planet formation. Massive planets reduce the inflow of material from the outer to the inner disc, therefore triggering an earlier onset of disc dispersal due to PE through a process known as Planet-Induced PhotoEvaporation (PIPE). In this case, a cavity is formed as material inside the planetary orbit is removed by PE, leaving only the outer disc to drive the migration of the giant planet. We investigate the impact of PE on giant planet migration and focus specifically on the case of transition discs with an evacuated cavity inside the planet location. This is important for determining under what circumstances PE is efficient at halting the migration of giant planets, thus affecting the final orbital distribution of a population of planets. For this purpose, we use 2D FARGO simulations to model the migration of giant planets in a range of primordial and transition discs subject to PE. The results are then compared to the standard prescriptions used to calculate the migration tracks of planets in 1D planet population synthesis models. The FARGO simulations show that once the disc inside the planet location is depleted of gas, planet migration ceases. This contradicts the results obtained by the impulse approximation, which predicts the accelerated inward migration of planets in discs that have been cleared inside the planetary orbit. These results suggest that the impulse approximation may not be suitable for planets embedded in transition discs. A better approximation that could be used in 1D models would involve halting planet migration once the material inside the planetary orbit is depleted of gas and the surface density at the 3:2 mean motion resonance location in the outer disc reaches a threshold value of $0.01\,\mathrm{g\,cm^{-2}}$.