Recycling of the first atmospheres of embedded planets: Dependence on core mass and optical depth

TL;DR

This study investigates how core mass, optical depth, and headwind influence atmospheric recycling in young planets, showing recycling prevents runaway gas accretion and explains the abundance of super-Earths and mini-Neptunes.

Contribution

It extends previous models by analyzing the effects of core mass, optical depth, and headwind on atmospheric recycling and its role in preventing hot Jupiter formation.

Findings

Recycling reaches equilibrium, preventing self-gravitating atmospheres.

Higher core masses increase turbulence and recycling efficiency.

Recycling effectively halts runaway gas accretion across explored parameters.

Abstract

Recent observations found close-in planets with significant atmospheres of hydrogen and helium in great abundance. These are the so-called super-Earths and mini-Neptunes. Their atmospheric composition suggests that they formed early during the gas-rich phase of the circumstellar disk and were able to avoid becoming hot Jupiters. As a possible explanation, recent studies explored the recycling hypothesis and showed that atmosphere-disk recycling is able to fully compensate for radiative cooling and thereby halt Kelvin-Helmholtz contraction to prevent runaway gas accretion. To understand the parameters that determine the efficiency of atmospheric recycling, we extend our earlier studies by exploring the effects of the core mass, the effect of circumstellar gas on sub-Keplerian orbits (headwind), and the optical depth of the surrounding gas on the recycling timescale. Additionally, we analyze their effects on the size and mass of the forming atmosphere. For the explored parameter space, all simulations eventually reach an equilibrium where heating due to hydrodynamic recycling fully compensates radiative cooling. In this equilibrium, the atmosphere-to-core mass ratio stays well below $10 \, \%$, preventing the atmosphere from becoming self-gravitating and entering runaway gas accretion. Higher core masses cause the atmosphere to become turbulent, which further enhances recycling. Even for our highest core mass of $10 \, M_\mathrm{Earth}$, atmosphere-disk recycling is efficient enough to fully compensate for radiative cooling and prevent the atmosphere from becoming self-gravitating. Hence, in-situ formation of hot Jupiters is very unlikely, and migration of gas giants is a key process required to explain their existence. Our findings imply that atmosphere-disk recycling is the most natural explanation for the prevalence of close-in super-Earths and mini-Neptunes.