Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS
Volume 695, Issue 1, Pages L53-L57Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/695/1/L53
Keywords
hydrodynamics; instabilities; planetary systems: formation; planetary systems: protoplanetary disks; radiative transfer
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Funding
- Swiss Federal Grant
- University of Zurich
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I argue for two modes of gas giant planet formation and discuss the conditions under which each mode operates. Gas giant planets at disk radii r > 100 AU are likely to form in situ by disk instability, while core accretion plus gas capture remains the dominant formation mechanism for r < 100 AU. During the mass accretion phase, mass loading can push disks toward fragmentation conditions at large r. Massive, extended disks can fragment into clumps of a few to tens of Jupiter masses. This is confirmed by radiation hydrodynamics simulations. The two modes of gas giant formation should lead to a bimodal distribution of gas giant semimajor axes. Because core accretion is expected to be less efficient in low-metallicity systems, the ratio of gas giants at large r to planets at small r should increase with decreasing metallicity.
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