Constraining Planetary Gas Accretion Rate from Hα Linewidth and Intensity: Case of PDS 70 b and c

Abstract

Recent observations of protoplanets embedded in circumstellar disks have shed light on the planet formation process. In particular, detection of hydrogen Balmer-line (Hα) emission gives direct constraints on late-stage accretion onto gas giants. Very recently Haffert et al. (2019) measured the spectral line-widths, in addition to intensities, of Hα emission from the two protoplanets orbiting PDS 70. Here, we study these protoplanets by applying radiation-hydrodynamic models of the shock-heated accretion flow onto protoplanets that Aoyama et al. (2018) has recently developed. As a result, we demonstrate that Hα line-widths combined with intensities lead to narrowing down the possible ranges of the protoplanetary accretion rate and/or mass significantly. While the current spectral resolution is not high enough to derive a definite conclusion regarding their accretion process, high-resolution spectral imaging of growing protoplanets is highly promising.

arXiv comment8 pages, 5 figures; Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters