Paper detail

Formation of Planetary Populations II: Effects of Initial Disk Size & Radial Dust Drift

Recent ALMA observations indicate that while a range of disk sizes exist, typical disk radii are small, and that radial dust drift affects the distribution of solids in disks. Here we explore the consequences of these features in planet population synthesis models. A key feature of our model is planet traps - barriers to otherwise rapid type-I migration of forming planets - for which we include the ice line, heat transition, and outer edge of the dead zone. We find that the ice line plays a fundamental role in the formation of warm Jupiters. In particular, the ratio of super Earths to warm Jupiters formed at the ice line depend sensitively on the initial disk radius. Initial gas disk radii of $\sim$50 AU results in the largest super Earth populations, while both larger and smaller disk sizes result in the ice line producing more gas giants near 1 AU. This transition between typical planet class formed at the ice line at various disk radii confirms that planet formation is fundamentally linked to disk properties (in this case, disk size), and is a result that is only seen when dust evolution effects are included in our models. Additionally, we find that including radial dust drift results in the formation of more super Earths between 0.1 - 1 AU, having shorter orbital radii than those produced in models where dust evolution effects are not included.