Related papers: Using warm dust to constrain unseen planets
We investigate the prospects for detecting dust from two body collisions during the late stages of planet formation at 1-150 AU. We develop an analytic model to describe the formation of a dusty cloud of debris and use numerical coagulation…
The formation of planetary cores must proceed rapidly in order for the giant planets to accrete their gaseous envelopes before the dissipation of the protoplanetary gas disc (<3 Myr). In orbits beyond 10 AU, direct accumulation of…
(ABRIDGED) Studies of debris disks have shown that most systems are analogous to the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt. However a rare subset of sun-like stars possess dust which lies in the terrestrial planet region. In this study we aim to determine…
A quarter of DA white dwarfs are metal polluted, yet elements heavier than helium sink down through the stellar atmosphere on timescales of days. Hence, these white dwarfs must be currently accreting material containing heavy elements.…
Searches for planets via gravitational lensing have focused on cases in which the projected separation, a, between planet and star is comparable to the Einstein radius, R_E. This paper considers smaller orbital separations and demonstrates…
Many dozens of circumstellar discs show signatures of sculpting by planets. To help find these protoplanets by direct imaging, we compute their broadband spectral energy distributions, which overlap with the JWST (James Webb Space…
Direct imaging observations constrain the fraction of stars orbited by gas giant planets with separations greater than 10 au to about 0.01 only. This is widely believed to indicate that massive protoplanetary discs rarely fragment on…
We reconsider the commonly held assumption that warm debris disks are tracers of terrestrial planet formation. The high occurrence rate inferred for Earth-mass planets around mature solar-type stars based on exoplanet surveys (roughly 20%)…
Although debris disks may be common in exoplanet systems, only a few systems are known in which debris disks and planets coexist. Planets and the surrounding stellar population can have a significant impact on debris disk evolution. Here we…
We explore in situ formation and subsequent evolution of close-in super-Earths and mini-Neptunes. We adopt a steady-state inner protoplanetary gas disc structure that arises from viscous accretion due to the magneto-rotational instability…
The onset of planet formation is actively under debate. Recent mass measurements of disks around protostars suggest an early start of planet formation in the Class 0/I disks. However, dust substructures, one possible signature of forming…
Debris discs are a consequence of the planet formation process and constitute the fingerprints of planetesimal systems. Their solar system's counterparts are the asteroid and Edgeworth-Kuiper belts. The DUNES survey aims at detecting…
Recent ALMA observations have identified a variety of dust gaps in protoplanetary disks, which are commonly interpreted to be generated by unobserved planets. Predicting mass of such embedded planets is of fundamental importance in…
Jupiter-mass planets with large semi-major axes ($a > 1.0$ AU) occur at a higher rate around evolved intermediate mass stars. There is a pronounced paucity of close-in ($a < 0.6$ AU), intermediate period ($5 < P < 100$ days), low-mass…
We address two outstanding issues in the sequential accretion scenario for gas giant planet formation, the retention of dust grains in the presence of gas drag and that of cores despite type I migration. The efficiency of these processes is…
The study of the planet-debris disk connection can shed light on the formation and evolution of planetary systems, and may help predict the presence of planets around stars with certain disk characteristics. In preliminary analyses of the…
Models of planet formation have shown that giant planets have a large impact on the number, masses and orbits of terrestrial planets that form. In addition, they play an important role in delivering volatiles from material that formed…
Main sequence stars are commonly surrounded by debris disks, composed of cold dust continuously replenished by a reservoir of undetected dust-producing planetesimals. In a planetary system with a belt of planetesimals (like the Solar…
Laboratory experiments show that a solid-state greenhouse effect in combination with thermophoresis can efficiently erode a dust bed in a low-pressure gaseous environment. The surface of an illuminated, light absorbing dusty body is cooler…
Physical conditions of the interstellar medium in galaxies are closely linked to the ambient radiation field and the heating of dust grains. In order to characterize dust properties in galaxies over a wide range of physical conditions, we…