Planetesimal Scattering Efficiency of Cold Giant Planet Architectures

TL;DR

This study uses dynamical simulations to explore how cold giant planets influence the scattering of material to inner terrestrial planets, revealing that multiple giants and their eccentricities significantly affect scattering efficiency.

Contribution

It provides new insights into how the architecture of cold giant planets impacts material redistribution to inner planets, using specific exoplanetary system models.

Findings

Increasing Jupiter's eccentricity boosts scattering by tenfold.

Multiple giant planets enhance scattering efficiency.

Uranus and Neptune analogs slightly reduce scattering effectiveness.

Abstract

The discovery of many exoplanets has revealed an incredible diversity of orbital architectures. These orbital configurations are intrinsically linked to the potential for habitable environments within the system, since the gravitational influence of the planets governs the angular momentum distribution within the system. This angular momentum distribution, in turn, alters the planetary orbits and rotational obliquities. In the case of giant planets, their gravitational influence can also produce significant redistribution of volatiles, particularly those that lie beyond the snow line. Here, we present the results of dynamical simulations that investigate the role of cold giant planets in scattering material to inner terrestrial planets. We highlight 10 exoplanetary systems with 2 or more known giant planets beyond the snow line, and adopt a solar system analog template that investigates the scattering of material within the range 3-8~AU. We show that increasing the eccentricity of a Jupiter analog from its present, near-circular, value to a moderate range (0.2-0.3) results in an order of magnitude increase in scattered material to the inner part of the system. The inclusion of a Saturn analog to the dynamical model produces a similar increase, highlighting the importance of multiple giant planets beyond the snow line. However, the addition of analogs to Uranus and Neptune can have a minor negative effect on scattering efficiency through the transfer of angular momentum from the inner giant planets.