Planet Formation and Evolution
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Planet formation: protoplanetary disk removal and rotational stability of planets by Isamu Manuel Matsuyama A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics University of Toronto Copyright c 2005 by Isamu Manuel Matsuyama ii Abstract Planet formation: protoplanetary disk removal and rotational stability of planets Isamu Manuel Matsuyama Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics University of Toronto 2005 There are many unsolved problems in the physics of planet formation and the evolution of their parent disk is expected to play an important role in resolving them. In part I of this thesis, I discuss the evolution of protoplanetary disks under the influence of viscous evolution, photoevaporation from the central source, and photoevaporation by external stars; and explore the consequences for planet formation. The discovery of hot jupiters orbiting at a few AU from their stars compliments earlier detections of massive planets on very small orbits. The short period orbits strongly suggest that planet migration has occurred, with the likely mechanism being tidal interactions between the planets and the gas disks out of which they formed. The newly discovered long period planets, together with the gas giant planets in our solar system, show that migration is either absent or rapidly halted in at least some systems. I propose a mechanism for halting type-II migration at several AU in a gas disk: the formation of a photoevaporation gap prevents planets outside the gap from migrating down to the star. The final planet location relative to the habitable zone is often used to discuss the planet habitability. But a planet in the habitable zone may experience large amplitude motion of its rotation axis, which may cause severe climate variations and have major consequences for the development of life. In part II of this thesis, I investigate the true polar wander (TPW) rotational stability of planets. I revisit the classic problem of the long-term rotational stability of planets in response to loading using a new, generalized theoretical development based on the fluid limit of viscoelastic Love number theory. Finally, I explore the time dependent (rather than the equilibrium fluid limit) rotational stability of planets by considering the example of an ice age Earth. I present a new treatment of the linearized Euler equations that govern rotation perturbations on a viscoelastic planet driven by surface loading. iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor, Prof. Norman Murray, for his guidance and for generously providing his time and resources. His easy grasp of physics helped me to complete this thesis. I am very grateful to my geophysics supervisor, Prof. Jerry Mitrovica, for his enthusiastic support and guidance throughout the Ph.D. program. Jerry, it has been a pleasure to work with you and I look forward to many years of friendship and collaboration. I couldn’t have made it without the enthusiastic support and guidance of my M.Sc. supervisor, Prof. Doug Johnstone. Doug, thank you for pushing me and guiding me through the first steps of the graduate program. I hope that our friendship and collaboration continues for many years to come. I learned much from the many discussions with Prof. Yanquin Wu. I would like to acknowledge Professors Jayawardhana and O’Connell for serving on my examination committee. Special thanks to Prof. O’Connell for agreeing to be my external reviewer and for providing constructive comments. I have learned and benefited much from the scientific collaborations with Lee Hartmann, John Wahr, Archie Paulson, Taylor Perron, Michael Manga, and Mark Richards. I would like to thank Marc Goodman, Margaret Fukunaga, and Maria Wong for always being very helpful. I owe my deepest gratitude to my parents, Myriam and Isamu. Okashan, siempre hemos sido poco expresivos, asi que quiero aprovechar para agradecerle por todo el esfuerzo y sacarnos a los cuatro adelante. Finally, I would like to thank Michelle Grando for her love and companionship. Michi, gracias por compartir conmigo todos los momentos felices y por tu apoyo en tiempos mas dificiles durante el doctorado. iv Contents I Photoevaporation of Protoplanetary Disks and Planet Formation 3 1 Introduction 5 2 Disk Model 7 2.1 The thin accretion disk .................................. 7 2.2 The star disk accretion shock ............................... 12 2.3 The hot ionized disk atmosphere ............................. 15 2.4 The warm neutral disk atmosphere ............................ 16 3 Disk evolution and photoevaporation 17 3.1 EUV photoevaporation from the central source ..................... 17 3.2 EUV photoevaporation by external stars ......................... 24 3.3 FUV photoevaporation by external stars ......................... 28 3.4 Discussion and summary .................................. 31 4 Halting type-II planet migration by disk photoevaporation from the central source 35 4.1 Introduction ......................................... 35 4.2 Model ............................................ 36 4.3 Discussion .......................................... 36 4.4 Conclusions ......................................... 40 5 Final comments and future work 43 II True polar wander rotational stability of planets 45 1 Introduction 47 2 True polar wander adiabatic invariant for a quasi-rigid body 51 2.1 Equations of motion for a quasi-rigid body ........................ 51 v 2.2 Hamiltonian for a quasi-rigid body ............................ 53 2.3 Adiabatic invariant for a quasi-rigid body ........................ 54 2.4 Summary .......................................... 55 3 True polar wander of a quasi-rigid body 57 3.1 Inertia tensor for a distribution of mass anomalies on a sphere ............. 58 3.2 TPW driven by a colony of beetles ............................ 59 3.2.1 Order of magnitude estimate for the true polar wander speed ......... 59 3.2.2 ‘Memory’ of the quasi-rigid body ......................... 60 3.2.3 Numerical model for a colony of randomly crawling beetles .......... 62 3.3 True polar wander of a randomly evolving body ..................... 66 3.4 Application to planets: oblateness distribution ..................... 68 4 Inertia tensor perturbations 69 4.1 Inertia tensor perturbations: direct load contribution .................. 69 4.1.1 Inertia tensor perturbations: direct axisymmetric load contribution ...... 70 4.2 Surface load gravitational potential ............................ 72 4.2.1 Surface load gravitational potential: point mass at the north pole ....... 74 4.3 A mapping between gravitational potential and inertia perturbations ......... 77 4.3.1 Mapping for an axisymmetric gravitational potential .............. 78 4.4 Inertia tensor perturbations: load-induced deformation ................. 78 4.4.1 Inertia tensor perturbations: axisymmetric load-induced deformation ..... 79 4.5 Inertia tensor perturbations: rotationally-induced deformation ............. 80 4.5.1 Centrifugal potential ................................ 80 4.5.2 Centrifugal potential - a spherical harmonic expansion ............. 81 4.5.3 Inertia tensor perturbations associated with rotational deformation ...... 83 4.6 Fluid limit inertia tensor perturbations .......................... 84 4.6.1 Fluid Love numbers ................................ 84 4.6.2 Fluid limit inertia tensor perturbations ..................... 87 5 True polar wander of dynamic planets with lithospheres 89 5.1 Introduction ......................................... 89 5.2 Inertia tensor perturbations ................................ 92 5.2.1 Inertia Perturbations: The Surface Mass Load ................. 92 5.2.2 Inertia Perturbations: Rotational Effects ..................... 93 5.2.3 Total Inertia Perturbations ............................ 95 5.2.4 Willemann (1984) Revisited ............................ 96 5.3 Results ............................................ 97 vi 5.3.1 Axisymmetric loads ................................ 98 5.3.2 Bills and James (1999) ............................... 105 5.3.3 Non-axisymmetric loads .............................. 106 5.4 The Impact of Internally-Supported Inertia Perturbations ............... 113 5.5 Final Remarks ....................................... 116 6 True polar wander of an ice-age Earth 119 6.1 Introduction ......................................... 119 6.2 The Linearized Euler Equations: The Liouville Equations ............... 121 6.3 Inertia Perturbations .................................... 123 6.3.1 Inertia perturbations: the ice load ........................ 124 6.3.2 Inertia perturbations: rotational effects ..................... 126 6.4 The Liouville Equations Revisited ............................ 127 6.5 kf - The Traditional Approximation ........................... 129 6.6 kf - A New Approach ................................... 137 6.7 The Physics of GIA-Induced TPW: A Summary .................... 147 6.8 Final Remarks ....................................... 151 7 Summary 153 III Appendices 159 A Numerical solution for the viscous diffusion equation 161 B Rotational stability of free rigid bodies 163 B.1 Geometric description using the energy ellipsoid and the angular momentum sphere 163 B.2 Equation of motion for a rigid oblate ellipsoid ...................... 165 C Inertia tensor for a distribution of mass anomalies on a sphere in the centre of mass reference frame 169 D Spherical harmonic convention adopted in this