TY - JOUR
T1 - Global 3D radiation hydrodynamic simulations of proto-Jupiter’s convective envelope
AU - Zhu, Zhaohuan
AU - Jiang, Yan Fei
AU - Baehr, Hans
AU - Youdin, Andrew N.
AU - Armitage, Philip J.
AU - Martin, Rebecca G.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank the referee for a very helpful report, especially regarding the implications on chemical abundances of the planetary atmosphere. This research was supported by NASA TCAN award 80NSSC19K0639. All simulations are carried out using computer supported by the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin through XSEDE grant TG-AST130002 and from the NASA High-End Computing (HEC) program through the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division at Ames Research Center. ZZ acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation under CAREER Grant Number AST-1753168. The Center for Computational Astrophysics at the Flatiron Institute is supported by the Simons Foundation. ANY acknowledges support from NASA by grant NNX17AK59G.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s).
PY - 2021/11/1
Y1 - 2021/11/1
N2 - The core accretion model of giant planet formation has been challenged by the discovery of recycling flows between the planetary envelope and the disc that can slow or stall envelope accretion. We carry out 3D radiation hydrodynamic simulations with an updated opacity compilation to model the proto-Jupiter’s envelope. To isolate the 3D effects of convection and recycling, we simulate both isolated spherical envelopes and envelopes embedded in discs. The envelopes are heated at given rates to achieve steady states, enabling comparisons with 1D models. We vary envelope properties to obtain both radiative and convective solutions. Using a passive scalar, we observe significant mass recycling on the orbital time-scale. For a radiative envelope, recycling can only penetrate from the disc surface until ∼0.1–0.2 planetary Hill radii, while for a convective envelope, the convective motion can ‘dredge up’ the deeper part of the envelope so that the entire convective envelope is recycled efficiently. This recycling, however, has only limited effects on the envelopes’ thermal structure. The radiative envelope embedded in the disc has identical structure as the isolated envelope. The convective envelope has a slightly higher density when it is embedded in the disc. We introduce a modified 1D approach which can fully reproduce our 3D simulations. With our updated opacity and 1D model, we recompute Jupiter’s envelope accretion with a 10 M core, and the time-scale to runaway accretion is shorter than the disc lifetime as in prior studies. Finally, we discuss the implications of the efficient recycling on the observed chemical abundances of the planetary atmosphere (especially for super-Earths and mini-Neptunes).
AB - The core accretion model of giant planet formation has been challenged by the discovery of recycling flows between the planetary envelope and the disc that can slow or stall envelope accretion. We carry out 3D radiation hydrodynamic simulations with an updated opacity compilation to model the proto-Jupiter’s envelope. To isolate the 3D effects of convection and recycling, we simulate both isolated spherical envelopes and envelopes embedded in discs. The envelopes are heated at given rates to achieve steady states, enabling comparisons with 1D models. We vary envelope properties to obtain both radiative and convective solutions. Using a passive scalar, we observe significant mass recycling on the orbital time-scale. For a radiative envelope, recycling can only penetrate from the disc surface until ∼0.1–0.2 planetary Hill radii, while for a convective envelope, the convective motion can ‘dredge up’ the deeper part of the envelope so that the entire convective envelope is recycled efficiently. This recycling, however, has only limited effects on the envelopes’ thermal structure. The radiative envelope embedded in the disc has identical structure as the isolated envelope. The convective envelope has a slightly higher density when it is embedded in the disc. We introduce a modified 1D approach which can fully reproduce our 3D simulations. With our updated opacity and 1D model, we recompute Jupiter’s envelope accretion with a 10 M core, and the time-scale to runaway accretion is shorter than the disc lifetime as in prior studies. Finally, we discuss the implications of the efficient recycling on the observed chemical abundances of the planetary atmosphere (especially for super-Earths and mini-Neptunes).
KW - Convection
KW - Opacity
KW - Planets and satellites: formation
KW - Planets and satellites: gaseous planets
KW - Protoplanetary discs
KW - Radiation: dynamics
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U2 - 10.1093/mnras/stab2517
DO - 10.1093/mnras/stab2517
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85116546898
SN - 0035-8711
VL - 508
SP - 453
EP - 474
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
IS - 1
ER -