Thermal torque effects on the migration of growing low-mass planets

• Published in: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Vol. 486; no. 4; pp. 5690 - 5708
• Main Authors: Guilera, O M, Cuello, N, Montesinos, M, Miller Bertolami, M M, Ronco, M P, Cuadra, J, Masset, F S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 01-07-2019
• Subjects: planet-disc interactions; planets and satellites: formation; protoplanetary discs
• ISSN: 0035-8711; 1365-2966
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stz1158

Abstract
As planets grow, the exchange of angular momentum with the gaseous component of the protoplanetary disc produces a net torque resulting in a variation of the semimajor axis of the planet. For low-mass planets not able to open a gap in the gaseous disc, this regime is known as type I migration. Pioneer works studied this mechanism in isothermal discs finding fast inward type I migration rates that were unable to reproduce the observed properties of extrasolar planets. In the last years, several improvements have been made in order to extend the study of type I migration rates to non-isothermal discs. Moreover, it was recently shown that if the planet’s luminosity due to solid accretion is taken into account, inward migration could be slowed down and even reversed. In this work, we study the planet formation process incorporating, and comparing, updated type I migration rates for non-isothermal discs and the role of planet’s luminosity over such rates. We find that the latter can have important effects on planetary evolution, producing a significant outward migration for the growing planets.