A Population Synthesis Study on the Formation of Cold Jupiters from Truncated Planetesimal Disks

Abstract

The occurrence rate of giant planets increases with orbital period and turns over at a location that roughly corresponds to the snowline of solar-type stars. Further, the density distribution of cold Jupiters (CJs) on the semimajor axis–mass diagram shows a relatively steep inner boundary, shaping the desert of warm Jupiters. The eccentricities of CJs show a broad distribution with a decreasing number density toward the larger end. Previous planet formation models fail to reproduce all these features at the same time. We use a planet population synthesis (PPS) model with truncated initial planetesimal distribution and compare the mass and orbital distribution of the simulated planets with the observation. We show that the occurrence of CJs with respect to the orbital period, the slope of the inner boundary of CJs on the semimajor axis–mass diagram, and the eccentricity distribution of CJs agree reasonably well with observations, if CJs form from truncated planetesimal disks of 10 au or wider with suppressed migration. While PPS simulations generally overestimate the fraction of giants with eccentricity below 0.2, N -body simulations produce a more consistent eccentricity distribution with observations. While the fraction of high-eccentricity planets can be increased by widening the planetesimal disk or reducing the migration speed, a deficit of giants with eccentricity between 0.2 and 0.4 exists regardless of the choices of parameters. Our results indicate that CJs are more likely born in truncated disks near the snowline than in classical uniform disks.

Keywords

• Planet formation
• -body simulations
• Extrasolar gaseous planets