The implementation of consistent planetesimal formation in the population synthesis of Exo-Planets

• Applicant: Professor Dr. H. Hubertus Klahr
• Subject Area: Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Term: from 2017 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 362567360

The most consistent possibility to test our ideas about the complex phenomenon of planet formation is to study the individual processes in greatest detail, then to parametrise the intermediate results and finally put them in a population synthesis code to run many MonteCarlo instances of planet formation and evolution in a disk. The outcome of these MonteCarlo runs can then be tested against the observational data for Exo-Planets. With this strategy we can test the plausibility of the assumptions we make for the individual processes and readjust our theory accordingly. In its current version the population synthesis uses an ad hoc initial distribution of planetesimals without incorporating our latest understanding of the planetesimal formation process. In this project we will link our models of planetesimal formation and evolution in competition with with pebble accretion to our model for population synthesis of Exo-Planets, removing an important shortcoming from these models. Based on our model of gravoturbulent formation of planetesimals from pebbles we adapt our models of dust evolution in disks with an incorporated recipe to form planetesimals based on the radial pebble flux in the disk to the disk evolution model used in the population synthesis models. Thus we will make the formation models for planets more realistic and at the same time can study the influence of the planetesimal formation efficiency on the predicted outcome of Exo-Planet populations.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1992: Exploring the diversity of extrasolar planets