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。彼得博登海默博士和道格拉斯林（加州大学-圣克鲁斯）将进行一项研究，以确定其他恒星周围宜居行星的频率。 近年来，天文学家已经发现了300多颗巨行星，质量从海王星大小到几个木星质量不等，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支持了序贯吸积假说（SAH），该假说假设大质量行星是通过颗粒凝聚、星子凝聚、胚胎合并和气体吸积形成的，同时还有大量的类地行星。 该项目的目标包括确定导致不同行星群出现的主要影响，包括气体巨星，热彗星，超级地球和可居住行星;预测可观察到的特征，如质量周期和周期偏心率分布，这是SAH与其他行星形成情景的独特特征;并发现行星性质与其宿主恒星质量和化学成分的关系。该项目将通过利用两名研究生的才能，为NSF实现研究和科学教育一体化的目标做出贡献并对部分本科生进行了各方面的理论计算。 将通过行星科学公开讲座和向科学期刊投稿的方式向公众传播成果。

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.