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Connecting the Chemical Composition of Planetary Atmospheres with Planet Formation CONNECTING THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF PLANETARY ATMOSPHERES WITH PLANET FORMATION By ALEXANDER J. CRIDLAND, M.SC. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Physics McMaster University ©Copyright by Alexander J. Cridland, August 2017 Descriptive Note DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (PHYSICS and ASTRONOMY) 2017 McMaster University (Physics and Astronomy) Hamilton, Ontario AUTHOR: Alexander J. Cridland, M.Sc. (McMaster University) SUPERVISOR: Dr. Ralph E. Pudritz NUMBER OF PAGES: xv, 182 ii Abstract What sets the observable chemical composition of exoplanetary atmospheres? The available chem- ical abundance of the planet’s natal protoplanetary disk gas will have a deciding role in the bulk abundance of the atmosphere very early in the planet’s life. While late accretion of ices and inter- atmosphere physical processing can change the observable chemical abundances. We have developed a theoretical model which connects the chemical and physical evolution of an accretion disk with the growth of a young planet to predict the bulk chemical abundance of the planetary atmosphere that is inherited from the disk. We assess what variation in atmospheric chemical abundances are attributed to different planet formation histories. We find differences in the relative abundances of primary nitrogen carriers NH3 and N2 depending on when the planet accreted its gas. Early (t < 1 Myr) accreters predominately accreted warmer gas which tend to have its nitrogen in NH3, while later protoplanets accrete colder, more N2 dominated gas. Furthermore we compute the carbon-to-oxygen ratio (C/O) for each planets, which is used to infer where a planet forms in its accretion disk. We find that each of our planets accrete their gas very close to the water ice line, thereby accreting ‘pristine’ gas with C/Oplanet exactly matching its host star. We extend our results by tuning our initial disk parameters to reproduce the properties of the HL Tau disk. We produce three models that span the range of measured gas masses, and one model which studies a UV quiet system. We generally find that planet formation is efficient enough to produce a Jupiter-massed planet within the predicted 1 Myr age of the disk. We find a correspondence between the radial locations of ice lines within our astrochemical model and the set of observed dust gaps in the HL Tau system. iii Acknowledgments Producing this thesis has been a labour of love, one that I’ve never experienced before. I am forever grateful to Ralph, your tutelage and supervision has helped shape the work that lead up to what you see before you. I have learned a great deal in the four years that we have worked together. And I look forward to applying the research principles that you have bestowed on me as I continue my career - I’ll also never again down play my work during research talks, thanks to your incessant reminding! To my thesis committee members James and Ted, I am grateful for your support and helpful comments throughout the my time as a PhD researcher. And for a challenging defense! It made the success taste that much sweeter. To my friends and family - I can never forget the love and support that I felt living as a graduate student. To my office mates: Mikhail, Rachel, Sam, Matt, Sarah, Ben, ... and of course Corey (who would ever forget Corey) - we’ve all been through a lot together, but we’ve gotten through it - thank you for your support! To my parents and sister: you have always believed in me, and pushed me to be the best that I can be. Thank you for all the love you have given me, I hope only to make you proud! Finally to Brittany: my most important source of strength. You have helped me through the stresses of graduate school like no other, and for that you will always have my love. iv Contents 1 Introduction 1 1.1 AccretionDiskPhysicsandChemistry . ......... 6 1.1.1 DiskStructure-GasandDust . ... 7 1.1.2 DiskStructure-Temperature . ..... 11 1.1.3 Disk Structure -EffectofaFormingPlanet. ........ 13 1.1.4 DiskChemistry ................................. 13 1.2 PlanetFormation- ObservationsandTheory . .......... 16 1.2.1 ObservationalConstraints . ...... 16 1.2.2 CoreAccretionModelofPlanetFormation . ....... 18 1.2.3 PlanetMigration ............................... .. 22 1.3 ExoplanetaryAtmospheres . ....... 25 1.3.1 ObservationalConstraints . ...... 25 1.3.2 TheoreticalConsiderations . ....... 26 1.3.3 Outline of the Following Chapters . ...... 27 2 Composition of Early Planetary Atmospheres I: Connecting Disk Astrochemistry to the Formation of Planetary Atmospheres 30 2.1 Introduction .................................... .... 31 2.2 DiskModel ....................................... 36 2.2.1 HeatingSources ................................ .. 40 2.3 DiskChemistry ................................... ... 45 v 2.4 PlanetFormationandMigration . ....... 51 2.4.1 DefiningaPlanetTrap ............................ .. 54 2.4.2 PlanetFormationModel . ... 61 2.5 AtmosphericCompositions: Results . .......... 64 2.5.1 Condensation Front Locations: Comparison with TW Hya andHLTau .. 64 2.5.2 Computing the Initial Atmospheric Composition of a Forming Exoplanet . 67 2.6 Discussion ...................................... ... 71 2.6.1 ComparisonwiththeObservations . ...... 71 2.6.2 ElementalRatios:C/O ........................... .. 72 2.6.3 ElementalRatios:C/N .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ... 73 2.7 Conclusions ..................................... ... 74 3 Radial Drift of Dust in Protoplanetary Disks: The Evolution of Ice lines and Dead zones 76 3.1 Introduction .................................... .... 77 3.2 Background ...................................... .. 78 3.2.1 Dust, ionization, and the impact on planet formation . ............ 78 3.2.2 Limitingthedustgrainsize . ..... 79 3.2.3 Linking dust grain size and astrochemistry . .......... 80 3.3 Method .......................................... 81 3.3.1 CPA16-dustModel ............................... 82 3.3.2 Two-pop-dustModel ............................. .. 82 3.3.3 RadiationField ................................ .. 85 3.3.4 DiskChemistryandIonization . ..... 87 3.4 Results ......................................... .. 90 3.4.1 Dust Surface Density Radial Distribution . ......... 94 3.4.2 DustRetention ................................. 97 3.4.3 MidplaneX-rayFlux ............................. .. 97 3.4.4 DeadZoneRadialEvolution . .... 101 vi 3.4.5 2DStructureoftheDeadZone . ... 101 3.5 DiscussionandConclusions . ....... 102 3.5.1 ImplicationsforPlanetFormation . ....... 102 3.5.2 Implications for structure seen in ALMA observations ofdisks . 105 3.5.3 Conclusions ................................... 106 4 Composition of Early Planetary Atmospheres II: Coupled Dust and Chemical Evolution in Protoplanetary Disks 108 4.1 Introduction .................................... .... 109 4.2 Background ...................................... 111 4.3 PhysicalModel ................................... ... 114 4.3.1 EvolvingAstrochemicalModel . ..... 115 4.3.2 DustModel .................................... 117 4.3.3 PlanetFormationModel . ... 118 4.3.4 ImportanceofOpacityforGasAccretion . ........ 121 4.4 Results: DiskAstrochemistry . ......... 122 4.4.1 Comparison of the Distribution of Gas Species . ......... 122 4.4.2 HCN/CN as a Tracer of Dust Physics and Radiative Flux . ........ 128 4.4.3 SummaryofKeyChemicalResults . .... 129 4.5 Results: PlanetaryAtmospheres . ......... 132 4.5.1 Comparing Planetary Formation and Atmospheric Composition for Different DustModels .................................... 132 4.5.2 VaryingInitialDiskMass . .... 135 4.6 Discussion ...................................... ... 141 4.6.1 Ubiquity of H2OandCOmixingratios? . 141 4.6.2 Variation in CH4 asatracerofformationhistory? . 143 4.6.3 Nitrogen carriers as a tracer of formation history? . ............ 143 4.7 Conclusions ..................................... ... 144 5 Application of Planet Formation to the HL Tau System 146 5.1 Introduction .................................... .... 146 vii 5.2 ModelBackground ................................. ... 148 5.2.1 PlanetFormationinHLTau . 152 5.3 Results: Planet Formation in the HL Tau System . .......... 153 5.3.1 DustGapsinHLTau .............................. 154 5.4 Results: Atmospheric Chemical Composition . ........... 160 5.5 Conclusions ..................................... ... 162 5.6 Appendix: Role of Mean Motion Resonance in Sculpting HL Tau .......... 163 6 Conclusions and Future Prospects 166 viii List of Figures 1.1 Recreation of Figure 1 from Öberg et al. (2011) demonstrating the C/O for a simple disk model. In this figure we fixed the location of the water, CO2, and CO ice line to 2, 10, and 60 AU respectively. Included in this figure is the carbon and oxygen contributions from carbon and silicate dust grains. Solar abundances (0.54) are also shownforreference. ................................. ... 3 1.2 Examples of observed protoplanetary disks. ............. 6 1.3 Mass and semi-major axis of all known exoplanets. Data taken from http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/ on May 22nd 2017. The colours denote the observational method by which the planet wasdiscovered. ..................................... .. 17 1.4 Numerical simulation of Type-I migration. The planet generates spiral waves at Lind- blad resonances which interact with the planet. Masset (2002) A& A 387 605-623, DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20020240,