Population level study of the influence of planetesimal fragmentation on planet formation

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• Nicolas Kaufmann, University of Bern
• Tuesday 24 October 2023, 13:00-14:00
• Ryle seminar room + ONLINE - Details to be sent by email.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Matthew Hooton.

The size distribution of solids in the protoplanetary disk is still ill constrained and evolves significantly throughout plant formation by various processes. As the planets grow, they excite the mutual random velocities among planetesimals, making collisions between them destructive. This leads to their fragmentation changing the typical size of solids accreted by protoplanets. I will show the impact planetesimal collisional fragmentation has on planet formation employing a population synthesis approach. The synthesis is performed by varying the initial conditions based on observations of disks to generate synthetic exoplanet populations. Our results show that planetesimal fragmentation, in conjunction with radial drift and the interactions with the gas disk, can either promote or hinder planet formation, depending on the typical size of fragments produced in collisions. In addition, the enhanced radial drift of the smaller fragments also changes the typical origin of accreted solids affecting the composition of the forming planets.

This talk is part of the Exoplanet Seminars series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Combined External Astrophysics Talks DAMTP
• Cosmology, Astrophysics and General Relativity
• Exoplanet Seminars
• Institute of Astronomy Talk Lists
• LCLU Departmental Talks
• Ryle seminar room + ONLINE - Details to be sent by email

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