145 research outputs found
The interplay between radiation pressure and the photoelectric instability in optically thin disks of gas and dust
Previous theoretical works have shown that in optically thin disks, dust
grains are photoelectrically stripped of electrons by starlight, heating nearby
gas and possibly creating a dust clumping instability, the photoelectric
instability (PeI), that significantly alters global disk structure. In the
current work, we use the Pencil Code to perform the first numerical models of
the PeI that include stellar radiation pressure on dust grains in order to
explore the parameter regime in which the instability operates. In models with
gas surface densities greater than ,
we see a variety of dust structures, including sharp concentric rings and
non-axisymmetric arcs and clumps that represent dust surface density
enhancements of factors of depending on the run parameters. The
gas distributions show various structures as well, including clumps and arcs
formed from spiral arms. In models with lower gas surface densities, vortices
and smooth spiral arms form in the gas distribution, but the dust is too weakly
coupled to the gas to be significantly perturbed. In one high gas surface
density model, we include a large, low-order gas viscosity, and, in agreement
with previous radiation pressure-free models, find that it observably smooths
the structures that form in the gas and dust, suggesting that resolved images
of a given disk may be useful for deriving constraints on the effective
viscosity of its gas. Broadly, our models show that radiation pressure does not
preclude the formation of complex structure from the PeI, but the qualitative
manifestation of the PeI depends strongly on the parameters of the system. The
PeI may provide an explanation for unusual disk morphologies such as the moving
blobs of the AU Mic disk, the asymmetric dust distribution of the 49 Ceti disk,
and the rings and arcs found in the disk around HD 141569A.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures; submitted to Ap
On shocks driven by high-mass planets in radiatively inefficient disks. I. Two-dimensional global disk simulations
Recent observations of gaps and non-axisymmetric features in the dust
distributions of transition disks have been interpreted as evidence of embedded
massive protoplanets. However, comparing the predictions of planet-disk
interaction models to the observed features has shown far from perfect
agreement. This may be due to the strong approximations used for the
predictions. For example, spiral arm fitting typically uses results that are
based on low-mass planets in an isothermal gas. In this work, we describe
two-dimensional, global, hydrodynamical simulations of disks with embedded
protoplanets, with and without the assumption of local isothermality, for a
range of planet-to-star mass ratios 1-10 M_jup for a 1 M_sun star. We use the
Pencil Code in polar coordinates for our models. We find that the inner and
outer spiral wakes of massive protoplanets (M>5 M_jup) produce significant
shock heating that can trigger buoyant instabilities. These drive sustained
turbulence throughout the disk when they occur. The strength of this effect
depends strongly on the mass of the planet and the thermal relaxation
timescale; for a 10 M_jup planet embedded in a thin, purely adiabatic disk, the
spirals, gaps, and vortices typically associated with planet-disk interactions
are disrupted. We find that the effect is only weakly dependent on the initial
radial temperature profile. The spirals that form in disks heated by the
effects we have described may fit the spiral structures observed in transition
disks better than the spirals predicted by linear isothermal theory.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures. ApJ, accepte
On Shocks Driven by High-mass Planets in Radiatively Inefficient Disks. II. Three-dimensional Global Disk Simulations
Recent high-resolution, near-infrared images of protoplanetary disks have shown that these disks often present spiral features. Spiral arms are among the structures predicted by models of disk–planet interaction and thus it is tempting to suspect that planetary perturbers are responsible for these signatures. However, such interpretation is not free of problems. The observed spirals have large pitch angles, and in at least one case (HD 100546) it appears effectively unpolarized, implying thermal emission of the order of 1000 K (465 ± 40 K at closer inspection). We have recently shown in two-dimensional models that shock dissipation in the supersonic wake of high-mass planets can lead to significant heating if the disk is sufficiently adiabatic. Here we extend this analysis to three dimensions in thermodynamically evolving disks. We use the Pencil Code in spherical coordinates for our models, with a prescription for thermal cooling based on the optical depth of the local vertical gas column. We use a 5M_J planet, and show that shocks in the region around the planet where the Lindblad resonances occur heat the gas to substantially higher temperatures than the ambient gas. The gas is accelerated vertically away from the midplane to form shock bores, and the gas falling back toward the midplane breaks up into a turbulent surf. This turbulence, although localized, has high α values, reaching 0.05 in the inner Lindblad resonance, and 0.1 in the outer one. We find evidence that the disk regions heated up by the shocks become superadiabatic, generating convection far from the planet's orbit
KELT-3b: A Hot Jupiter Transiting a V=9.8 Late-F Star
We report the discovery of KELT-3b, a moderately inflated transiting hot
Jupiter with a mass of 1.477 (-0.067, +0.066) M_J, and radius of 1.345 +/-
0.072 R_J, with an orbital period of 2.7033904 +/- 0.000010 days. The host
star, KELT-3, is a V=9.8 late F star with M_* = 1.278 (-0.061, +0.063) M_sun,
R_* = 1.472 (-0.067, +0.065) R_sun, T_eff = 6306 (-49, +50) K, log(g) = 4.209
(-0.031, +0.033), and [Fe/H] = 0.044 (-0.082, +0.080), and has a likely proper
motion companion. KELT-3b is the third transiting exoplanet discovered by the
KELT survey, and is orbiting one of the 20 brightest known transiting planet
host stars, making it a promising candidate for detailed characterization
studies. Although we infer that KELT-3 is significantly evolved, a preliminary
analysis of the stellar and orbital evolution of the system suggests that the
planet has likely always received a level of incident flux above the
empirically-identified threshold for radius inflation suggested by Demory &
Seager (2011).Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, accepted to Ap
Near-IR Direct Detection of Water Vapor in Tau Boötis b
We use high dynamic range, high-resolution L-band spectroscopy to measure the radial velocity (RV) variations of the hot Jupiter in the τ Boötis planetary system. The detection of an exoplanet by the shift in the stellar spectrum alone provides a measure of the planet's minimum mass, with the true mass degenerate with the unknown orbital inclination. Treating the τ Boo system as a high flux ratio double-lined spectroscopic binary permits the direct measurement of the planet's true mass as well as its atmospheric properties. After removing telluric absorption and cross-correlating with a model planetary spectrum dominated by water opacity, we measure a 6σ detection of the planet at K_p = 111 ± 5 km s^(−1), with a 1σ upper limit on the spectroscopic flux ratio of 10^(−4). This RV leads to a planetary orbital inclination of i=45^(+3)_(-4)° and a mass of M_p = 5.90^(+0.35)_(-0.20)M_Jup. We report the first detection of water vapor in the atmosphere of a non-transiting hot Jupiter, τ Boo b
KELT-6b: A P~7.9 d Hot Saturn Transiting a Metal-Poor Star with a Long-Period Companion
We report the discovery of KELT-6b, a mildly-inflated Saturn-mass planet
transiting a metal-poor host. The initial transit signal was identified in
KELT-North survey data, and the planetary nature of the occulter was
established using a combination of follow-up photometry, high-resolution
imaging, high-resolution spectroscopy, and precise radial velocity
measurements. The fiducial model from a global analysis including constraints
from isochrones indicates that the V=10.38 host star (BD+31 2447) is a mildly
evolved, late-F star with T_eff=6102 \pm 43 K, log(g_*)=4.07_{-0.07}^{+0.04}
and [Fe/H]=-0.28 \pm 0.04, with an inferred mass M_*=1.09 \pm 0.04 M_sun and
radius R_star=1.58_{-0.09}^{+0.16} R_sun. The planetary companion has mass
M_P=0.43 \pm 0.05 M_J, radius R_P=1.19_{-0.08}^{+0.13} R_J, surface gravity
log(g_P)=2.86_{-0.08}^{+0.06}, and density rho_P=0.31_{-0.08}^{+0.07}
g~cm^{-3}. The planet is on an orbit with semimajor axis a=0.079 \pm 0.001 AU
and eccentricity e=0.22_{-0.10}^{+0.12}, which is roughly consistent with
circular, and has ephemeris of T_c(BJD_TDB)=2456347.79679 \pm 0.00036 and
P=7.845631 \pm 0.000046 d. Equally plausible fits that employ empirical
constraints on the host star parameters rather than isochrones yield a larger
planet mass and radius by ~4-7%. KELT-6b has surface gravity and incident flux
similar to HD209458b, but orbits a host that is more metal poor than HD209458
by ~0.3 dex. Thus, the KELT-6 system offers an opportunity to perform a
comparative measurement of two similar planets in similar environments around
stars of very different metallicities. The precise radial velocity data also
reveal an acceleration indicative of a longer-period third body in the system,
although the companion is not detected in Keck adaptive optics images.Comment: Published in AJ, 17 pages, 15 figures, 6 table
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