English

Semi-analytical model for the dynamical evolution of planetary systems via giant impacts

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2025-05-28 v1

Abstract

In the standard model of terrestrial planet formation, planets are formed through giant impacts of planetary embryos after the dispersal of the protoplanetary gas disc. Traditionally, NN-body simulations have been used to investigate this process. However, they are computationally too expensive to generate sufficient planetary populations for statistical comparisons with observational data. A previous study introduced a semi-analytical model that incorporates the orbital and accretionary evolution of planets due to giant impacts and gravitational scattering. This model succeeded in reproducing the statistical features of planets in NN-body simulations near 1 au around solar-mass stars. However, this model is not applicable to close-in regions (around 0.1 au) or low-mass stars because the dynamical evolution of planetary systems depends on the orbital radius and stellar mass. This study presents a new semi-analytical model applicable to close-in orbits around stars of various masses, validated through comparison with NN-body simulations. The model accurately predicts the final distributions of planetary mass, semi-major axis, and eccentricity for the wide ranges of orbital radius, initial planetary mass, and stellar mass, with significantly reduced computation time compared to NN-body simulations. By integrating this model with other planet-forming processes, a computationally low-cost planetary population synthesis model can be developed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2505.20548,
  title  = {Semi-analytical model for the dynamical evolution of planetary systems via giant impacts},
  author = {Tadahiro Kimura and Haruka Hoshino and Eiichiro Kokubo and Yuji Matsumoto and Masahiro Ikoma},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.20548},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

16 pages, 9 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in ApJ