hide
Free keywords:
Astrophysics, Earth and Planetary Astrophysics, astro-ph.EP, Astrophysics, Solar and Stellar Astrophysics, astro-ph.SR
Abstract:
The formation and evolution of protoplanetary discs remains a challenge from
both a theoretical and numerical standpoint. In this work we first perform a
series of tests of our new hybrid algorithm presented in Glaschke, Amaro-Seoane
and Spurzem 2011 (henceforth Paper I) that combines the advantages of high
accuracy of direct-summation N-body methods with a statistical description for
the planetesimal disc based on Fokker-Planck techniques. We then address the
formation of planets, with a focus on the formation of protoplanets out of
planetesimals. We find that the evolution of the system is driven by encounters
as well as direct collisions and requires a careful modelling of the evolution
of the velocity dispersion and the size distribution over a large range of
sizes. The simulations show no termination of the protoplanetary accretion due
to gap formation, since the distribution of the planetesimals is only subjected
to small fluctuations. We also show that these features are weakly correlated
with the positions of the protoplanets. The exploration of different impact
strengths indicates that fragmentation mainly controls the overall mass loss,
which is less pronounced during the early runaway growth. We prove that the
fragmentation in combination with the effective removal of collisional
fragments by gas drag sets an universal upper limit of the protoplanetary mass
as a function of the distance to the host star, which we refer to as the mill
condition.
