Gas giant planets as dynamical barriers to inward-migrating super-Earths

Abstract

Planets of 1-4 times Earth's size on orbits shorter than 100 days exist around 30-50% of all Sun-like stars. In fact, the Solar System is particularly outstanding in its lack of "hot super-Earths" (or "mini-Neptunes"). These planets -- or their building blocks -- may have formed on wider orbits and migrated inward due to interactions with the gaseous protoplanetary disk. Here, we use a suite of dynamical simulations to show that gas giant planets act as barriers to the inward migration of super-Earths initially placed on more distant orbits. Jupiter's early formation may have prevented Uranus and Neptune (and perhaps Saturn's core) from becoming hot super-Earths. Our model predicts that the populations of hot super-Earth systems and Jupiter-like planets should be anti-correlated: gas giants (especially if they form early) should be rare in systems with many hot super-Earths. Testing this prediction will constitute a crucial assessment of the validity of the migration hypothesis for the origin of close-in super-Earths.

Accepted for publication in ApJL

References in corpus (17)

• The Occurrence and Mass Distribution of Close-in Super-Earths, Neptunes, and Jupiters
• Migration and the formation of systems of hot super-Earths and Neptunes
• Three-dimensional simulations of multiple protoplanets embedded in a protostellar disc
• On the Location of the Snow Line in a Protoplanetary Disk
• Cavity opening by a giant planet in a protoplanetary disc and effects on planetary migration
• Observable Consequences of Planet Formation Models in Systems with Close-in Terrestrial Planets
• On disc protoplanet interactions in a non-barotropic disc with thermal diffusion
• Hot super-Earths and giant planet cores from different migration histories
• Occurrence and core-envelope structure of 1--4x Earth-size planets around Sun-like stars
• Deserts and pile-ups in the distribution of exoplanets due to photoevaporative disc clearing
• GJ 832c: A super-earth in the habitable zone
• Accretion and Evolution of ~2.5 Earth-mass Planets with Voluminous H/He Envelopes
• Building Giant-Planet Cores at a Planet Trap
• Terrestrial Planet Formation in the Presence of Migrating Super-earths
• Tests of In-Situ Formation Scenarios for Compact Multiplanet Systems
• Stellar irradiated discs and implications on migration of embedded planets III: viscosity transitions
• The circulation of dust in protoplanetary discs and the initial conditions of planet formation

Cited by in corpus (33)

• Formation of planetary systems by pebble accretion and migration: Growth of gas giants
• The Planet Nine Hypothesis
• Challenges in Planet Formation
• Cold Jupiters and improved masses in 38 Kepler and K2 small planet systems from 3661 HARPS-N radial velocities. No excess of cold Jupiters in small planet systems
• Dynamical evidence for an early giant planet instability
• The Formation of Jupiter's Diluted Core by a Giant Impact
• Evidence for a high mutual inclination between the cold Jupiter and transiting super Earth orbiting $\pi$ Men
• Architectures of Compact Super-Earth Systems Shaped by Instabilities
• Solar Obliquity Induced by Planet Nine
• Solar System Physics for Exoplanet Research
• HADES RV Programme with HARPS-N at TNG XV. Planetary occurrence rates around early-M dwarfs
• Mid-to-Late M Dwarfs Lack Jupiter Analogs
• Long-Period Giant Companions to Three Compact, Multiplanet Systems
• Mutual Orbital Inclinations Between Cold Jupiters and Inner Super-Earths
• Eccentricity excitation and merging of planetary embryos heated by pebble accretion
• Inner Planetary System Gap Complexity is a Predictor of Outer Giant Planets
• Dynamical origin of the Dwarf Planet Ceres
• TESS-Keck Survey XIV: Two giant exoplanets from the Distant Giants Survey
• Cold Jupiters and small planets: Friends, foes, or indifferent? A search for correlations with the largest exoplanet samples
• The GAPS Programme with HARPS-N@TNG XII: Characterization of the planetary system around HD108874
• The GAPS Programme at TNG -- XXIV. An eccentric Neptune-mass planet near the inner edge of the BD-11 4672 habitable zone
• The GAPS programme at TNG. XLVI. Deep search for low-mass planets in late-dwarf systems hosting cold Jupiters
• Analysis of the public HARPS/ESO spectroscopic archive -- Jupiter-like planets around HD 103891 and HD 105779
• Discovery of a cold giant planet and mass measurement of a hot super-Earth in the multi-planetary system WASP-132
• In-depth characterization of the Kepler-10 three-planet system with HARPS-N radial velocities and Kepler transit timing variations
• Very-wide-orbit planets from dynamical instabilities during the stellar birth cluster phase
• Planetary system architectures with low-mass inner planets: Direct imaging exploration of mature systems beyond 1 au
• TESS and HARPS-N unveil two planets transiting TOI-1453. A super-Earth and one of the lowest mass sub-Neptunes
• Constraining Planetary Formation Models Using Conditional Occurrences of Various Planet Types
• The GAPS Programme at TNG -- XXIII. HD 164922 d: a close-in super-Earth discovered with HARPS-N in a system with a long-period Saturn mass companion
• Effects of Outer Giant Planets on In Situ Formation of Inner Super-Earths
• True Masses using RV data with Hipparcos and Gaia Astrometry
• ARDENT: A Python package for fast dynamical detection limits with radial velocities