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Young planets embedded in their protoplanetary disk interact gravitationally with it leading to energy and angular momentum exchange. This interaction determines the evolution of the planet through changes to the orbital parameters. We…
Giant planets are tens to thousands of times as massive as the Earth, and many times as large. Most of their volumes are occupied by hydrogen and helium, the primary constituents of the protostellar disks from which they formed.…
The Kepler mission's discovery of a number of circumbinary planets orbiting close (a_p < 1.1 au) to the stellar binary raises questions as to how these planets could have formed given the intense gravitational perturbations the dual stars…
Remnant planetesimals might have played an important role in reducing the orbital eccentricities of the terrestrial planets after their formation via giant impacts. However, the population and the size distribution of remnant planetesimals…
We formulate a set of linear equations that describe the behaviour of small eccentricities in a protoplanetary system consisting of a gaseous disc and a planet. Eccentricity propagates through the disc by means of pressure and self-gravity,…
Strong tidal interaction with the central star can circularize the orbits of close-in planets. With the standard tidal quality factor Q of our solar system, estimated circularization times for close-in extrasolar planets are typically…
(Abridged) In planetary systems with two or more giant planets, dynamical instabilities can lead to collisions or ejections through strong planet--planet scattering. Previous studies for simple initial configurations with two equal-mass…
We study the orbital properties of stars in four (published) simulations of thick disks formed by: i) accretion from disrupted satellites, ii) heating of a pre-existing thin disk by a minor merger, iii) radial migration and iv) gas rich…
In the core accretion paradigm of planet formation, gas giants only form a massive atmosphere after their progenitors exceeded a threshold mass: the critical core mass. Most (exo)planets, being smaller and rock/ice-dominated, never crossed…
Within the general framework of core-nucleated accretion theory of giant planet formation, the conglomeration of massive gaseous envelopes is facilitated by a transient period of rapid accumulation of nebular material. While the concurrent…
The apparent regularity of the motion of the giant planets of our solar system suggested for decades that said planets formed onto orbits similar to the current ones and that nothing dramatic ever happened during their lifetime. The…
Gas giant planets may form early-on during the evolution of protostellar discs, while these are relatively massive. We study how Jupiter-mass planet-seeds (termed protoplanets) evolve in massive, but gravitationally stable (Q>1.5), discs…
We present a new computation of the linear tidal interaction of a protoplanetary core with a thin gaseous disc in which it is fully embedded. For the first time a discussion of the orbital evolution of cores with eccentricity (e)…
We present 2D hydrodynamical simulations of hot Jupiters orbiting near the inner edge of protoplanetary discs. We systemically explore how the accretion rate at the inner disc edge is regulated by a giant planet of different mass, orbital…
Protoplanets are able to accrete primordial atmospheres when embedded in the gaseous protoplanetary disk. The formation and structure of the proto-atmosphere are subject to the planet--disk environment and orbital effects. Especially, when…
During the final growth phase of giant planets, accretion is thought to be controlled by a surrounding circumplanetary disk. Current astrophysical accretion disk models rely on hydromagnetic turbulence or gravitoturbulence as the source of…
Rapid rotation in field red giant stars is a relatively rare but well-studied phenomenon; here we investigate the potential role of planet accretion in spinning up these stars. Using Zahn's theory of tidal friction and stellar evolution…
A test particle orbit around an eccentric binary has two stationary states in which there is no nodal precession: coplanar and polar. Nodal precession of a misaligned test particle orbit centres on one of these stationary states. A low mass…
We present a mechanism related to the migration of giant protoplanets embedded in a protoplanetary disc whereby a giant protoplanet is caught up, before having migrated all the way to the central star, by a lighter outer giant protoplanet.…
We present the results of hydrodynamical simulations of low mass protoplanets embedded in circumbinary accretion disks. The aim is to examine the migration and long term orbital evolution of the protoplanets, in order to establish the…