Structure and Evolution of Internally Heated Hot Jupiters

Hot Jupiters receive strong stellar irradiation, producing equilibrium temperatures of $1000 - 2500 \ \mathrm{Kelvin}$. Incoming irradiation directly heats just their thin outer layer, down to pressures of $\sim 0.1 \ \mathrm{bars}$. In standard irradiated evolution models of hot Jupiters, predicted transit radii are too small. Previous studies have shown that deeper heating -- at a small fraction of the heating rate from irradiation -- can explain observed radii. Here we present a suite of evolution models for HD 209458b where we systematically vary both the depth and intensity of internal heating, without specifying the uncertain heating mechanism(s). Our models start with a hot, high entropy planet whose radius decreases as the convective interior cools. The applied heating suppresses this cooling. We find that very shallow heating -- at pressures of$1 - 10 \ \mathrm{bars}$-- does not significantly suppress cooling, unless the total heating rate is$\gtrsim 10\%$of the incident stellar power. Deeper heating, at$100 \ \mathrm{bars}$, requires heating at only$1\%$of the stellar irradiation to explain the observed transit radius of$1.4 R_{\rm Jup}$after 5 Gyr of cooling. In general, more intense and deeper heating results in larger hot Jupiter radii. Surprisingly, we find that heat deposited at$10^4 \ \mathrm{bars}$-- which is exterior to$\approx 99\%$ of the planet's mass -- suppresses planetary cooling as effectively as heating at the center. In summary, we find that relatively shallow heating is required to explain the radii of most hot Jupiters, provided that this heat is applied early and persists throughout their evolution.Comment: Accepted at ApJ, 14 pages, 10 figure

On the Formation of Planetesimals via Secular Gravitational Instabilities with Turbulent Stirring

We study the gravitational instability (GI) of small solids in a gas disk as a mechanism to form planetesimals. Dissipation from gas drag introduces secular GI, which proceeds even when standard GI criteria for a critical density or Toomre's $Q$ predict stability. We include the stabilizing effects of turbulent diffusion, which suppresses small scale GI. The radially wide rings that do collapse contain up to $\sim 0.1$ Earth masses of solids. Subsequent fragmentation of the ring (not modeled here) would produce a clan of chemically homogenous planetesimals. Particle radial drift time scales (and, to a lesser extent, disk lifetimes and sizes) restrict the viability of secular GI to disks with weak turbulent diffusion, characterized by $\alpha \lesssim 10^{-4}$. Thus midplane dead zones are a preferred environment. Large solids with radii $\gtrsim 10$ cm collapse most rapidly because they partially decouple from the gas disk. Smaller solids, even below $\sim$ mm-sizes could collapse if particle-driven turbulence is weakened by either localized pressure maxima or super-Solar metallicity. Comparison with simulations that include particle clumping by the streaming instability shows that our linear model underpredicts rapid, small scale gravitational collapse. Thus the inclusion of more detailed gas dynamics promotes the formation of planetesimals. We discuss relevant constraints from Solar System and accretion disk observations.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal; 20 pages, 10 figure

Evidence for universality in the initial planetesimal mass function

Planetesimals may form from the gravitational collapse of dense particle clumps initiated by the streaming instability. We use simulations of aerodynamically coupled gas-particle mixtures to investigate whether the properties of planetesimals formed in this way depend upon the sizes of the particles that participate in the instability. Based on three high resolution simulations that span a range of dimensionless stopping time $6 \times 10^{-3} \leq \tau \leq 2$ no statistically significant differences in the initial planetesimal mass function are found. The mass functions are fit by a power-law, ${\rm d}N / {\rm d}M_p \propto M_p^{-p}$, with $p=1.5-1.7$ and errors of $\Delta p \approx 0.1$. Comparing the particle density fields prior to collapse, we find that the high wavenumber power spectra are similarly indistinguishable, though the large-scale geometry of structures induced via the streaming instability is significantly different between all three cases. We interpret the results as evidence for a near-universal slope to the mass function, arising from the small-scale structure of streaming-induced turbulence.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, accepted to ApJ Letters after minor modifications, including two new figures and some new text that better clarify our result