Population Synthesis of Hot Jupiters and Close-in Super Earths

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)资助的。彼得·博登海默和道格拉斯·林(加州大学圣克鲁斯分校)将进行一项研究，以确定其他恒星周围存在宜居行星的频率。近年来，天文学家已经发现了300多颗巨大的行星，质量从海王星大小到几颗木星大小不等，但还没有发现像地球这样的小行星。这些大质量行星的发现为顺序吸积假说(SAH)提供了支持，该假说认为大质量行星和丰富的类地行星是通过颗粒凝聚、行星小凝聚、胚胎合并和气体吸积形成的。该项目的目标包括确定导致各种行星群出现的主导效应，包括气态巨星、热木星、超级地球和宜居行星；预测可观察到的特征，如质量周期和周期偏心分布，这是SAH相对于其他行星形成情景的独特特征；发现行星性质与其宿主恒星的质量和化学成分的函数关系。该项目将通过利用两名研究生和一些本科生在理论计算的各个方面的才华，为实现研究和科学教育相结合的目标做出贡献。成果将通过关于行星科学的公开讲座和向面向公众的科学期刊投稿来传播。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Drs. Peter Bodenheimer and Douglas Lin (University of California - Santa Cruz) will undertake a study to determine the frequency of habitable planets around other stars. In recent years, astronomers have discovered over 300 giant planets, ranging in mass from Neptune-sized to several Jupiter masses, but have not yet found small planets like the Earth. The discovery of these massive planets has provided support to the sequential accretion hypothesis (SAH), which assumes that the massive planets were formed, together with a rich population of earth-like planets, through grain condensation, planetesimal coagulation, embryo merging, and gas accretion. The goals of this project include identifying the dominant effects which led to the emergence of diverse populations of planets, including gas giants, hot Jupiters, super Earths, and habitable planets; predicting observable features such as the mass-period and period-eccentricity distributions which are unique signatures of SAH versus other planet formation scenarios; and discovering dependence of planetary properties as functions of the mass and chemical composition of their host stars.The project will contribute toward NSF's goal of integration of research and scientific education by using the talents of two graduate students and some undergraduates in various aspects of the theoretical calculations. Results will be disseminated through public lectures on planetary science and through contributions to science journals for the general public.