Can giant planets form by direct gravitational instability?

Abstract

Gravitational instability has been invoked as a possible mechanism of giant planet formation in protoplanetary disks. Here we critically revise its viability by noting that for the direct production of giant planets it is not enough for protoplanetary disks to be gravitationally unstable. They must also be able to cool efficiently (on a timescale comparable to the local disk orbital period) to allow the formation of bound clumps by fragmentation. Combination of dynamical and thermal constraints puts very stringent lower limits on the surface density and temperature of disks capable of fragmenting into self-gravitating objects: for the gravitational instability to form giant planets at 10 AU gas temperature at this location must exceed 10^3 K for a minimum disk mass of 0.7 M_Sun and minimum disk luminosity of 40 L_Sun. Although these requirements relax in more distant parts of the disk, masses of bound objects formed as a result of instability even at 100 AU are too large (\sim 10 M_Jupiter) to explain characteristics of known extrasolar giant planets. Such protoplanetary disks (and planets formed in them) have very unusual observational properties and this severely constrains the possibility of giant planet formation by direct gravitational instability.

4 pages, submitted to ApJL

References in corpus (6)

• Nonlinear Outcome of Gravitational Instability in Cooling, Gaseous Disks
• Using FU Orionis Outbursts to Constrain Self-Regulated Protostellar Disk Models
• Formation of giant planets by fragmentation of protoplanetary disks
• The effect of cooling on the global stability of self-gravitating protoplanetary discs
• Final Stages of Planet Formation
• Fast accretion of small planetesimals by protoplanetary cores

Cited by in corpus (276)

• Theory of Star Formation
• Direct Imaging of Multiple Planets Orbiting the Star HR 8799
• Rapid growth of gas-giant cores by pebble accretion
• Origins of Hot Jupiters
• Gravitational Instabilities in Circumstellar Disks
• Dynamics of Protoplanetary Disks
• The Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey: Giant Planet and Brown Dwarf Demographics From 10-100 AU
• Stellar, Brown Dwarf, and Multiple Star Properties from Hydrodynamical Simulations of Star Cluster Formation
• Forming Planetesimals in Solar and Extrasolar Nebulae
• Spectral and Photometric Diagnostics of Giant Planet Formation Scenarios
• The properties of brown dwarfs and low-mass hydrogen-burning stars formed by disc fragmentation
• Investigating fragmentation conditions in self-gravitating accretion discs
• LkCa 15: A Young Exoplanet Caught at Formation?
• The Runts of the Litter: Why planets formed through gravitational instability can only be failed binary stars
• The burst mode of accretion and disk fragmentation in the early embedded stages of star formation
• KELT-1b: A Strongly Irradiated, Highly Inflated, Short Period, 27 Jupiter-mass Companion Transiting a mid-F Star
• A Combined Subaru/VLT/MMT 1--5 Micron Study of Planets Orbiting HR 8799: Implications for Atmospheric Properties, Masses, and Formation
• The structure of protoplanetary discs around evolving young stars
• The VLA Nascent Disk and Multiplicity Survey of Perseus Protostars (VANDAM). II. Multiplicity of Protostars in the Perseus Molecular Cloud
• The Importance of Radiative Feedback for the Stellar Initial Mass Function
• The Two Modes of Gas Giant Planet Formation
• Characterization of exoplanets from their formation II: The planetary mass-radius relationship
• The Formation of Low-Mass Binary Star Systems Via Turbulent Fragmentation
• A companion to AB Pic at the planet/brown dwarf boundary
• A Triple Protostar System Formed via Fragmentation of a Gravitationally Unstable Disk
• Inside-Out Planet Formation
• Hydrodynamics of circumbinary accretion: Angular momentum transfer and binary orbital evolution
• Challenges in Forming Planets by Gravitational Instability: Disk Irradiation and Clump Migration, Accretion & Tidal Destructio
• The SPHERE infrared survey for exoplanets (SHINE). III. The demographics of young giant exoplanets below 300 au with SPHERE
• Exoplanetary Atmospheres - Chemistry, Formation Conditions, and Habitability
• On the Minimum Core Mass for Giant Planet Formation at Wide Separations
• The Formation Mechanism of Gas Giants on Wide Orbits
• The physical properties of extrasolar planets
• The New Generation Planetary Population Synthesis (NGPPS). I. Bern global model of planet formation and evolution, model tests, and emerging planetary systems
• Black hole mergers: can gas discs solve the `final parsec' problem?
• Simulations of star formation in a gaseous disc around sgr A* - a failed AGN
• Brown dwarf formation by gravitational fragmentation of massive, extended protostellar discs
• Formation of planets by tidal downsizing of giant planet embryos
• The Eccentric Cavity, Triple Rings, Two-Armed Spirals, and Double Clumps of the MWC 758 Disk
• Fragmentation of gravitationally unstable gaseous protoplanetary disks with radiative transfer
• The Thermal Regulation of Gravitational Instabilities in Protoplanetary Disks III. Simulations with Radiative Cooling and Realistic Opacities
• Rapid inward migration of planets formed by gravitational instability
• The Planet Nine Hypothesis
• Protostellar Disks: Formation, Fragmentation, and the Brown Dwarf Desert
• The minimum mass for star formation, and the origin of binary brown dwarfs
• A Statistical Analysis of SEEDS and Other High-Contrast Exoplanet Surveys: Massive Planets or Low-Mass Brown Dwarfs?
• Can giant planets form by gravitational fragmentation of discs?
• Dynamical Formation of Close Binaries During the Pre-main-sequence Phase
• Properties of gravitoturbulent accretion disks
• Formation of giant planets and brown dwarfs on wide orbits
• Formation of Giant Planets by Disk Instability on Wide Orbits Around Protostars with Varied Masses
• Grain sedimentation inside giant planet embryos
• Towards a Population Synthesis Model of Objects formed by Self-Gravitating Disc Fragmentation and Tidal Downsizing
• Formation, Survival, and Detectability of Planets Beyond 100 AU
• Direct confirmation of the radial-velocity planet $\beta$ Pic c
• The Gemini NICI Planet-Finding Campaign : Discovery of a Substellar L Dwarf Companion to the Nearby Young M Dwarf CD-35 2722
• Convective cooling and fragmentation of gravitationally unstable disks
• High-contrast Imaging Search for Planets and Brown Dwarfs around the Most Massive Stars in the Solar Neighborhood
• Hot Jupiters: Origins, Structure, Atmospheres
• Time-dependent models of the structure and evolution of self-gravitating protoplanetary discs
• A Disk Around the Planetary-Mass Companion GSC 06214-00210 b: Clues About the Formation of Gas Giants on Wide Orbits
• The Mass Budget of Planet Forming Discs: Isolating the Epoch of Planetesimal Formation
• A Keck HIRES Doppler Search for Planets Orbiting Metal-Poor Dwarfs. II. On the Frequency of Giant Planets in the Metal-Poor Regime
• Formation and survivability of giant planets on wide orbits
• Spiral Arms in Gravitationally Unstable Protoplanetary Disks as Imaged in Scattered Light
• WISE Y Dwarfs As Probes of the Brown Dwarf-Exoplanet Connection
• Numerical convergence in self-gravitating shearing sheet simulations and the stochastic nature of disc fragmentation
• Towards a population synthesis model of self-gravitating disc fragmentation and tidal downsizing II: The effect of fragment-fragment interactions
• Observational evidence for two distinct giant planet populations
• Complex Structure in Class 0 Protostellar Envelopes III: Velocity Gradients in Non-Axisymmetric Envelopes, Infall or Rotation?
• Black hole mergers: the first light
• A numerical simulation of a "super-Earth" core delivery from ~ 100 AU to ~ 8 AU
• Fu Ori outbursts and the planet-disc mass exchange
• Heavy metal rules. I. Exoplanet incidence and metallicity
• Formation, Orbital and Internal Evolutions of Young Planetary Systems
• High Contrast Imaging with an Arbitrary Aperture: Active Correction of Aperture Discontinuities
• Exploring the conditions required to form giant planets via gravitational instability in massive protoplanetary discs
• Stability of self-gravitating discs under irradiation
• The effects of opacity on gravitational stability in protoplanetary discs
• Gravitational Instabilities, Chondrule Formation, and the FU Orionis Phenomenon
• On the fragmentation criteria of self-gravitating protoplanetary discs
• Migration of Gas Giant Planets in Gravitationally Unstable Disks
• The Jeans Mass as a Fundamental Measure of Self-Gravitating Disc Fragmentation and Initial Fragment Mass
• Does disk fragmentation prevent the formation of supermassive stars in protogalaxies?
• Solution to the debris disc mass problem: planetesimals are born small?
• The role of disc self-gravity in the formation of protostars and protostellar discs
• A high binary fraction for the most massive close-in giant planets and brown dwarf desert members
• The Nature of Angular Momentum Transport in Radiative Self-Gravitating Protostellar Discs
• Fragment Production and Survival in Irradiated Disks: A Comprehensive Cooling Criterion
• The Thermal Regulation of Gravitational Instabilities in Protoplanetary Disks. IV. Simulations with Envelope Irradiation
• Long period planets from dynamical relaxation
• Discovery of a Substellar Companion to the Nearby Debris Disk Host HR 2562
• Have proto-planetary discs formed planets?
• Massive stars in sub-parsec rings around galactic centers
• Signatures of Gravitational Instability in Resolved Images of Protostellar Disks
• Effects of radiation transfer on the structure of self-gravitating disks, their fragmentation and evolution of the fragments
• Planet formation in stellar binaries II: overcoming the fragmentation barrier in alpha Centauri and gamma Cephei-like systems
• A possible architecture of the planetary system HR 8799
• Global Modeling of Nebulae with Particle Growth, Drift and Evaporation Fronts. I: Methodology and Typical Results
• Properties and occurrence rates of $Kepler$ exoplanet candidates as a function of host star metallicity from the DR25 catalog
• Numerical convergence in self-gravitating disc simulations: initial conditions and edge effects
• Astrometric Methods and Instrumentation to Identify and Characterize Extrasolar Planets: A Review
• Did Fomalhaut, HR 8799, and HL Tauri Form Planets via the Gravitational Instability? Placing Limits on the Required Disk Masses
• Formation of terrestrial planet cores inside giant planet embryos
• A revised condition for self-gravitational fragmentation of protoplanetary disks
• On the Mass Function, Multiplicity, and Origins of Wide-Orbit Giant Planets
• SCExAO/CHARIS Near-Infrared Direct Imaging, Spectroscopy, and Forward-Modeling of kappa And b: A Likely Young, Low-Gravity Superjovian Companion
• Dawes Review. The tidal downsizing hypothesis of planet formation
• Collision velocity of dust grains in self-gravitating protoplanetary discs
• The Young Suns Exoplanet Survey: Detection of a wide orbit planetary mass companion to a solar-type Sco-Cen member
• 3D Radiative Hydrodynamics for Disk Stability Simulations: A Proposed Testing Standard and New Results
• Planet formation in small separation binaries: not so excited after all
• The Close Binary Fraction as a Function of Stellar Parameters in APOGEE: A Strong Anti-Correlation With $\alpha$ Abundances
• Ensemble analysis of open cluster transit surveys: upper limits on the frequency of short-period planets consistent with the field
• Protostellar disks formed from rigidly rotating cores
• Brown dwarf formation by binary disruption
• How do Most Planets Form? -- Constraints on Disk Instability from Direct Imaging
• Disc fragmentation rarely forms planetary-mass objects
• Identifying and Analysing Protostellar Disc Fragments in Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Simulations
• Convergence of simulations of self-gravitating accretion discs II: Sensitivity to the implementation of radiative cooling and artificial viscosity
• The response of self-graviting protostellar discs to slow reduction in cooling timescale: the fragmentation boundary revisited
• The Degree of Fine-Tuning in our Universe -- and Others
• Enhanced Dust Emission in the HL Tau Disc: A Low-Mass Companion in Formation?
• A wide-orbit giant planet in the high-mass b Centauri binary system
• The fragmentation criteria in local vertically stratified self-gravitating disk simulations
• Embedded protostellar disks around (sub-)solar protostars. I. Disk structure and evolution
• Gas Giants in Hot Water: Inhibiting Giant Planet Formation and Planet Habitability in Dense Star Clusters Through Cosmic Time
• Tidal Downsizing model. I. Numerical methods: saving giant planets from tidal disruptions
• Gravitational fragmentation and formation of giant protoplanets on tens-of-au orbits
• The migration of gas giant planets in gravitationally unstable discs
• 13C17O suggests gravitational instability in the HL Tau disc
• Constraints on the formation mechanism of the planetary mass companion of 2MASS 1207334-393254
• The fragmentation of protostellar discs: the Hill criterion for spiral arms
• Fragmenting protostellar disks: properties and observational signatures
• Radiative feedback from protoplanets in self-gravitating protoplanetary discs
• Viscosity prescription for gravitationally unstable accretion disks
• Recent developments in planet migration theory
• The Dynamical Fate of Self-Gravitating Disc Fragments After Tidal Downsizing
• Giant Planet Formation by Disk Instability: A Comparison Simulation With An Improved Radiative Scheme
• Discovery of a directly imaged planet to the young solar analog YSES 2
• Structure and evolution of the first CoRoT exoplanets: Probing the Brown Dwarf/Planet overlapping mass regime
• From Disks to Planets
• The Ultra Cool Brown Dwarf Companion of WD 0806-661: Age, Mass, and Formation Mechanism
• The Minimum Jeans Mass, Brown Dwarf Companion IMF, and Predictions for Detection of Y-type Dwarfs
• Accretion disks around massive stars: Hydrodynamic structure, stability and dust sublimation
• Stability and Occurrence Rate Constraints on the Planetary Sculpting Hypothesis for "Transitional" Disks
• The Tidal Downsizing hypothesis for planet formation and the composition of Solar System comets
• An alternative origin for debris rings of planetesimals
• Deep infrared imaging of close companions to austral A- and F-type stars
• Planetary System Formation in Protoplanetary Disk around HL Tauri
• Directly observing continuum emission from self-gravitating spiral waves
• Convergence of SPH simulations of self-gravitating accretion discs: Sensitivity to the implementation of radiative cooling
• RODEO: a new method for planet-disk interaction
• From Pebbles and Planetesimals to Planets and Dust: the Protoplanetary Disk--Debris Disk Connection
• Triggered fragmentation in self-gravitating discs: forming fragments at small radii
• Accretion of gas onto gap-opening planets and circumplanetary flow structure in magnetized turbulent disks
• Giant Planet Formation by Disk Instability in Low Mass Disks?
• Tidal Downsizing Model. III. Planets from sub-Earths to Brown Dwarfs: structure and metallicity preferences
• MARVELS-1b: A Short-Period, Brown Dwarf Desert Candidate from the SDSS-III MARVELS Planet Search
• Setting the Stage: Planet formation and Volatile Delivery
• Metal loading of giant gas planets
• Induced planet formation in stellar clusters - a parameter study of star-disk encounters
• Positive metallicity correlation for coreless giant planets
• Dynamical Gaseous Rings in Global Simulations of Protoplanetary Disk Formation
• Ejection of gaseous clumps from gravitationally unstable protostellar disks
• A Resolved Ring of Debris Dust Around the Solar Analog HD 107146
• The temporal requirements of directly observing self-gravitating spiral waves in protoplanetary discs with ALMA
• Disk masses in the embedded and T Tauri phases of stellar evolution
• Characterizing gravito-turbulence in 3D: turbulent properties and stability against fragmentation
• Simulating star formation in molecular cloud cores IV. The role of turbulence and thermodynamics
• Planetesimal formation in self-gravitating discs: the effects of particle self-gravity and back-reaction
• The Effect of Irradiation on the Jeans Mass in Fragmenting Self-Gravitating Protostellar Discs
• The Maximum Mass Solar Nebula and the early formation of planets
• Stellar Encounters: A Stimulus for Disc Fragmentation?
• Protostellar Cloud Fragmentation and Inward Migration by Disk Capture as the Origin of Massive Exoplanets
• How fast do Jupiters grow? Signatures of the snowline and growth rate in the distribution of gas giant planets
• Limits on the Mass and Initial Entropy of 51 Eri b from Gaia EDR3 Astrometry
• Disk-fed giant planet formation
• Quantification of stochastic fragmentation of self-gravitating discs
• Circumstellar disks and planets. Science cases for next-generation optical/infrared long-baseline interferometers
• The long-term evolution of photoevaporating transition discs with giant planets
• Shaping the Brown Dwarf Desert: Predicting the Primordial Brown Dwarf Binary Distributions from Turbulent Fragmentation
• Nonlinear outcome of gravitational instability in an irradiated protoplanetary disc
• High-Contrast 3.8 Micron Imaging Of The Brown Dwarf/Planet-Mass Companion to GJ 758
• Relic proto-stellar disks and the origin of luminous circumstellar interaction in core collapse supernovae
• Precise radial velocities of giant stars IX. HD 59686 Ab: a massive circumstellar planet orbiting a giant star in a ~13.6 au eccentric binary system
• Giant planets and brown dwarfs on wide orbits: a code comparison project
• A Massive Planet to the Young Disc Star HD 81040
• One-armed spirals in locally isothermal, radially structured self-gravitating discs
• The Properties of Prestellar Discs in Isolated and Multiple Prestellar Systems
• Accretion bursts in high-mass protostars: a new testbed for models of episodic accretion
• Classification of the Circumstellar Disk Evolution During the Main Accretion Phase
• Changes in the metallicity of gas giant planets due to pebble accretion
• Analytical Solutions for Radiative Transfer: Implications for Giant Planet Formation by Disk Instability
• Very wide companion fraction from Gaia DR2: a weak or no enhancement for hot jupiter hosts, and a strong enhancement for contact binaries
• Tidal and Magnetic Interactions between a Hot Jupiter and its Host Star in the Magnetospheric Cavity of a Protoplanetary Disk
• Fragmentation of Kozai-Lidov Disks
• Planetesimal formation in self-gravitating discs -- dust trapping by vortices
• Planet Migration in Self-Gravitating Discs: Survival of Planets
• The role of the drag force in the gravitational stability of dusty planet-forming disc -- II. Numerical simulations
• Fragmentation favoured in discs around higher mass stars
• Gravitoviscous protoplanetary disks with a dust component. V. The dynamic model for freeze-out and sublimation of volatiles
• Binary companions triggering fragmentation in self-gravitating discs
• The diverse lives of massive protoplanets in self-gravitating discs
• Conditions for Gravitational Instability in Protoplanetary Disks
• Constraining the initial planetary population in the gravitational instability model
• Overcoming migration during giant planet formation
• The evolution of self-gravitating accretion discs
• A Theoretical Framework for the Mass Distribution of Gas Giant Planets forming through the Core Accretion Paradigm
• The Role of the Cooling Prescription for Disk Fragmentation: Numerical Convergence & Critical Cooling Parameter in Self-Gravitating Disks
• TW Hya: an old protoplanetary disc revived by its planet
• Turbulent Linewidths as a Diagnostic of Self-Gravity in Protostellar Discs
• Extreme evaporation of planets in hot thermally unstable protoplanetary discs: the case of FU Ori
• Fragmentation of protoplanetary disks around M-dwarfs
• HATS-39b, HATS-40b, HATS-41b, and HATS-42b: Three Inflated Hot Jupiters and a Super-Jupiter Transiting F Stars
• Spirals and clumps in V960 Mon: signs of planet formation via gravitational instability around an FU Ori star?
• Inflated Eccentric Migration of Evolving Gas-Giants I: Accelerated Formation and Destruction of Hot and Warm Jupiters
• Stability of Magnetized Disks and Implications for Planet Formation
• The Demographics of Exoplanets
• The Formation of Fragments at Corotation in Isothermal Protoplanetary Disks
• Stellar Flybys Interrupting Planet-Planet Scattering Generates Oort Planets
• A Possible Substellar Companion to the Intermediate-mass Giant HD 175679
• AB Aurigae: Possible evidence of planet formation through the gravitational instability
• Planetary core formation via multi-species pebble accretion
• Hiding Signatures of Gravitational Instability in Protoplanetary Discs with Planets
• The formation of brown dwarfs
• A Self-Gravitating Disc Around L1527 IRS?
• A third star in the HAT-P-7 system, and a new dynamical pathway to misaligned hot Jupiters
• The Demographics of Wide-Separation Planets
• A Lower Angular Momentum Limit for Self-Gravitating Protostellar Disc Fragmentation
• Planet population synthesis: The role of stellar encounters
• Warping Away Gravitational Instabilities in Protoplanetary Discs
• Tracing the formation and migration history: molecular signatures in the atmosphere of misaligned hot Jupiter WASP-94Ab using JWST NIRSpec/G395H
• Filling in the Gaps: Can Gravitationally Unstable Discs Form the Seeds of Gas Giant Planets?
• Formation of Jupiter and Conditions for Accretion of the Galilean Satellites
• On the origin of wide-orbit ALMA planets: giant protoplanets disrupted by their cores
• Populating The Milky Way: Characterising Planet Demographics by Combining Galaxy Formation Simulations and Planet Population Synthesis Models
• Constraints on planet formation via gravitational instability across cosmic time
• Circumstellar discs: What will be next?
• Formation of Giant Planets
• Three Warm Jupiters orbiting TOI-6628, TOI-3837, TOI-5027 and one sub-Saturn orbiting TOI-2328
• Revised analysis of SPIRE observations for 2M1207
• The gas disk: Evolution and chemistry
• The role of density perturbation on planet formation by pebble accretion
• Numerical study of self-gravitating protoplanetary discs
• Dynamics of Dusty Vortices II: Stability of 2D dust laden vortices
• Structure of Protoplanetary Discs with Magnetically-driven Winds
• On the gravitational stability of a galactic disc as a two-fluid system
• Unveiling wide-orbit companions to K-type stars in Sco-Cen with Gaia EDR3
• Direct detection and spectral characterization of outer exoplanets with the SPICA coronagraph instrument (SCI)
• Tracking Advanced Planetary Systems (TAPAS) with HARPS-N. V.: A Massive Jupiter orbiting the very low metallicity giant star BD+03 2562 and a possible planet around HD~103485
• Constraint on the giant planet production by core accretion
• Searching for wide-orbit gravitational instability protoplanets with ALMA in the dust continuum
• Planet Across Space and Time (PAST). VII. The origin and tidal evolution of hot Jupiters constrained by a broken age-frequency relation
• Pebble accretion in self-gravitating protostellar discs
• The paradox of youth for ALMA planet candidates
• On fragmentation of turbulent self-gravitating discs in the long cooling time regime
• A new pathway to SO${}_2$: Revealing the NUV driven sulfur chemistry in hot gas giants
• C/O ratios in self-gravitating protoplanetary discs with dust evolution
• DIPSY: A new Disc Instability Population SYnthesis, I. Modeling, evolution of individual systems, and tests
• Continuing to Hide Signatures of Gravitational Instability in Protoplanetary Discs with Planets
• The PAIRS project: a global formation model for planets in binaries. I. Effect of disc truncation on the growth of S-type planets
• Understanding exoplanet formation, structure and evolution in 2010
• Linear Analysis of the Nonaxisymmetric Secular Gravitational Instability
• Dust growth and planet formation by disc fragmentation
• Drag-driven instability of a dust layer in a magnetized protoplanetary disc
• The formation of planets by disc fragmentation
• Migration of giant gaseous clumps and structure of the outer Solar system
• On the dynamics of pebbles in protoplanetary disks with magnetically-driven winds
• Hot Jupiter formation in dense stellar clusters: A Monte Carlo model applied to 47 Tucanae
• Constraining protoplanetary disc mass using the GI wiggle
• Inflated Eccentric Migration of evolving gas giants II: Numerical methodology and basic concepts
• A universal brown dwarf desert formed between planets and stars
• Gravitational instability in planet-forming discs
• Searching for GEMS: Three warm Saturns and a super-Jupiter orbiting four early M-dwarfs
• A transiting hot Jupiter with two outer siblings orbiting an intermediate-mass post main-sequence star