Contributor info: Prof. Simon Portegies Zwart

Simon Portegies Zwart, Erwan Hochart

SciPost Astro. 3, 001 (2024) · published 2 July 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

The recently observed population of 540 free-floating Jupiter-mass objects, including 40 dynamically soft pairs, and two triples, in the Trapezium cluster have raised interesting questions on their formation and evolution. We test various scenarios for the origin and survivability of these free floating Jupiter-mass objects and Jupiter-mass Binary Objects (JuMBOs) in the Trapezium cluster. The numerical calculations are performed by direct $N$-body integration of the stars and planets in the Trapezium cluster starting with a wide variety of planets in various configurations. We discuss four models: $\mathcal{SPP}$, in which selected stars have two outer orbiting Jupiter-mass planets; $\mathcal{SPM}$, where selected stars are orbited by Jupiter-mass planet-moon pairs; $\mathcal{ISF}$ in which JuMBOs form in situ with the stars, and $\mathcal{FFC}$, where we introduce a population of free-floating single Jupiter-mass objects, but no initialised binaries. Models $\mathcal{FFC}$ and $\mathcal{SPP}$ fail to produce enough JuMBOs. Models $\mathcal{SPM}$ can produce sufficient free-floaters and JuMBOs, but requires unusually wide orbits for the planet-moon system around the star. The observed JuMBOs and free-floating Jupiter-mass objects in the Trapezium cluster are best reproduced if they formed in pairs and as free-floaters together with the other stars in a smooth (Plummer) density profile with a virial radius of $\sim 0.5$pc. A fractal (with fractal dimension 1.6) stellar density distribution also works, but requires relatively recent formations ($\raise-.5ex\hbox{$\buildrel>\over\sim$} 0.2$Myr after the other stars formed) or a high ($\raise-.5ex\hbox{$\buildrel>\over\sim$} 50$%) initial binary fraction. This would make the primordial binary fraction of JuMBOs even higher than the already large observation fraction of $\sim 8$% (42/540). The fraction of JuMBOs will continue to drop with time, and the lack of JuMBOs in Upper Scorpius could then result in its higher age, causing more JuMBOs to be ionized. We then also predict that the interstellar density of Jupiter-mass objects (mostly singles with some $\sim 2$% lucky surviving binaries) is $\sim 0.05$ per pc$^{-3}$ (or around 0.24 per star).

Fedde Fagginger Auer, Simon Portegies Zwart

SciPost Astro. 2, 002 (2022) · published 1 April 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

A planet hardly ever survives the supernova of the host star in a bound orbit, because mass loss in the supernova and the natal kick imparted to the newly formed compact object cause the planet to be ejected. A planet in orbit around a binary has a considerably higher probability to survive the supernova explosion of one of the inner binary stars. In those cases, the planet most likely remains bound to the companion of the exploding star, whereas the compact object is ejected. We estimate this to happen to $\sim 1/33$ the circum-binary planetary systems. These planetary orbits tend to be highly eccentric ($e \ {\raise-.5ex\hbox{$\buildrel>\over\sim$}}\ 0.9$), and $\sim 20$% of these planets have retrograde orbits compared to their former binary. The probability that the planet as well as the binary (now with a compact object) remains bound is about ten times smaller ($\sim 3\cdot 10^{-3}$). We then expect the Milky way Galaxy to host $\ {\raise-.5ex\hbox{$\buildrel<\over\sim$}}\ 10$ x-ray binaries that are still orbited by a planet, and $\ {\raise-.5ex\hbox{$\buildrel<\over\sim$}}\ 150$ planets that survived in orbit around the compact object's companion. These numbers should be convolved with the fraction of massive binaries that is orbited by a planet.

Jeroen Bédorf, Simon Portegies Zwart

SciPost Astro. 1, 001 (2020) · published 14 May 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We present the smoothed-particle hydrodynamics simulation code, Bonsai-SPH, which is a continuation of our previously developed gravity-only hierarchical $N$-body code (called Bonsai). The code is optimized for Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) accelerators which enables researchers to take advantage of these powerful computational resources. Bonsa-SPH produces simulation results comparable with state-of-the-art, CPU based, codes, but using an order of magnitude less computation time. The code is freely available online and the details are described in this work.