Extreme evaporation of planets in hot thermally unstable protoplanetary discs: the case of FU Ori

TL;DR

This paper introduces the concept of Extreme Evaporation (EE) of gas giant planets in hot, unstable protoplanetary discs, explaining FU Ori's accretion outburst through a novel planet-disc interaction model.

Contribution

It develops a new theoretical model of EE, showing how evaporating gas giants can dominate accretion in FU Ori-like systems, a process not previously described.

Findings

EE rates of ~10^-5 Msun/yr can explain FU Ori outbursts.

A ~6 Jupiter mass planet can cause the observed accretion activity.

More massive planets or older discs do not undergo EE.

Abstract

Disc accretion rate onto low mass protostar FU Ori suddenly increased hundreds of times 85 years ago and remains elevated to this day. We show that the sum of historic and recent observations challenges existing FU Ori models. We build a theory of a new process, Extreme Evaporation (EE) of young gas giant planets in discs with midplane temperatures exceeding 30, 000 K. Such temperatures are reached in the inner 0.1 AU during thermal instability bursts. In our 1D time-dependent code the disc and an embedded planet interact through gravity, heat, and mass exchange. We use disc viscosity constrained by simulations and observations of dwarf novae instabilities, and we constrain planet properties with a stellar evolution code. We show that dusty gas giants born in the outer self-gravitating disc reach the innermost disc in a $\sim$ 10,000 years with radius of $\sim 10 R_J$. We show that their EE rates are $\sim 10^{-5}$ Msun/yr; if this exceeds the background disc accretion activity then the system enters a planet-sourced mode. Like a stellar secondary in mass-transferring binaries, the planet becomes the dominant source of matter for the star, albeit for $\sim$ O(100) years. We find that a $\sim$ 6 Jupiter mass planet evaporating in a disc fed at a time-averaged rate of $\sim 10^{-6}$ Msun/yr appears to explain all that we currently know about FU Ori accretion outburst. More massive planets and/or planets in older less massive discs do not experience EE process. Future FUOR modelling may constrain planet internal structure and evolution of the earliest discs.