MAGNETOSPHERIC GAP AND ACCUMULATION OF GIANT PLANETS CLOSE TO THE STAR

Authors: M.M. Romanova and  R.V.E. Lovelace. 

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Distribution of extrasolar planets in the vicinity of the star.

Sketch of an accretion disk which is disrupted by the star’s dipole magnetic field. The rate of migration of a planet is greatly slowed once it enters the gap.

Result of 3D simulations of disk accretion to a rotating star with a dipole moment μ misaligned with the star’s rotation axis W_* by Q = 30◦. The color background shows the density distribution in the equatorial region. Density varies from r ≈ 0.003 (blue color) to r ≈ 1 (red color). The red lines are magnetic field lines. The black arrow shows the direction of the magnetic moment μ.

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The top panels show the density distributions and sample magnetic field lines in the W_* −μ plane for different misalignment angles Q= 30◦, 45◦, 60◦. The bottom panels show the equatorial distribution of density.