Possible Outcomes of Coplanar High-eccentricity Migration: Hot Jupiters, Close-in Super-Earths, and Counter-orbiting Planets

• Published in: The Astrophysical journal Vol. 835; no. 2; pp. 204 - 224
• Main Authors: Xue, Yuxin, Masuda, Kento, Suto, Yasushi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia The American Astronomical Society 01.02.2017; IOP Publishing
• Subjects: Astrophysics; ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; Computer simulation; COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION; Disruption; Eccentric orbits; Extrasolar planets; Gas giant planets; Gravitation; INTERACTIONS; Jupiter; JUPITER PLANET; MASS; MIGRATION; Numerical simulations; ORBITS; PERTURBATION THEORY; Planet formation; planet-star interactions; Planetary mass; Planets; planets and satellites: formation; planets and satellites: general; SATELLITES; Stellar planets; SUN
• ISSN: 0004-637X; 1538-4357
• DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/835/2/204

We investigate the formation of close-in planets in near-coplanar eccentric hierarchical triple systems via the secular interaction between an inner planet and an outer perturber (Coplanar High-eccentricity Migration; CHEM). We generalize the previous work on the analytical condition for successful CHEM for point masses interacting only through gravity by taking into account the finite mass effect of the inner planet. We find that efficient CHEM requires that the systems should have m1 < m0 and m1 < m2. In addition to the gravity for point masses, we examine the importance of the short-range forces, and provide an analytical estimate of the migration timescale. We perform a series of numerical simulations in CHEM for systems consisting of a Sun-like central star, giant gas inner planet, and planetary outer perturber, including the short-range forces and stellar and planetary dissipative tides. We find that most of such systems end up with a tidal disruption; a small fraction of the systems produce prograde hot Jupiters (HJs), but no retrograde HJ. In addition, we extend CHEM to super-Earth mass range, and show that the formation of close-in super-Earths in prograde orbits is also possible. Finally, we carry out CHEM simulation for the observed hierarchical triple and counter-orbiting HJ systems. We find that CHEM can explain a part of the former systems, but it is generally very difficult to reproduce counter-orbiting HJ systems.