Planetesimal Drift in Eccentric Disks: Possible Outward Migration

Abstract

Radial drift of solid particles in the protoplanetary disk is often invoked as a threat to planet formation, as it removes solid material from the disk before it can be assembled into planets. However, it may also concentrate solids at particular locations in the disk, thus accelerating the coagulation process. Planetesimals are thought to drift much faster in an eccentric disk, due to their higher velocities with respect to the gas, but their drift rate has only been calculated using approximate means. In this work, we show that in some cases previous estimates of the drift rate, based on a modification of the results for an axisymmetric disk, are highly inaccurate. In particular, we find that under some easily realized circumstances, planetesimals may drift outwards, rather than inwards. This results in the existence of radii in the disk that act as stable attractors of planetesimals. We show that this can lead to a local enhancement of more than an order of magnitude in the surface density of planetesimals, even when a wide dispersion of planetesimal size is considered.

Keywords

• Exoplanet formation
• Eccentricity
• Protoplanetary disks
• Planetesimals
• Planet formation