Speaker
Description
Understanding and testing possible formation mechanisms is crucial to
understanding the history of planetary systems. While observationally there is a prevalence of evenly sized and spaced systems (“peas-in-a-pod” - Weiss et. al 2018), there is also an observational trend between the presence of a Cold Jupiter and inner system non-uniformity (He et. al 2023). Recent work explored in Best et. al (2024) demonstrated that such non-uniformity in spacing could be due to the influence of cold Jupiters on system formation via "sweeping secular resonances” transporting material in rather than post-formation dynamics. In this work we explore applying this mechanism to a real 5-planet system, Kepler-139. Applying the methodology of Best et. al (2024) we numerically constrain possible viscosity alpha parameters for the inner and outer disk that would lead to the observed architecture, as well as model the evolution of the disk's solid surface density. We find that such an evolutionary model could explain the non uniformity in the system architecture as well as note the importance of planetesimal size and mass in the evolution of the disk density profile due to planet/disk interaction. Finally, we note another process, “oversweeping” that could allow some material to be left behind, possibly creating a planetesimal belt between the outer Jupiter and inner system.
