AN INTERPRETATION OF THE ORBITAL PERIOD DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HOT JUPITERS AND GIANT PLANETS ON LONG-PERIOD ORBITS

Abstract

It is believed that a hot Jupiter (giant planet with a short period less than 10 days) forms in the outer region of a protoplanetary disk, then migrates inward to an orbit with a short period around 3 days, and stops there by a final stopping mechanism. The prominent problem is why hot Jupiters migrate inward to short-period orbits, while other extrasolar giant planets and Jovian planets in our solar system exist on long-period orbits. Here we show that this difference in orbital periods is caused by two populations of protoplanetary disks. One population experiences gravitational instability during some periods of their lifetime (GI disks), while the other does not (No-GI disks). In GI disks, planets can quickly migrate inward to short-period orbits to become hot Jupiters. In No-GI disks, the migration is so slow that planets can exist on long-period orbits. Protoplanetary disks are classified into the two populations because of the differences in properties of molecular cloud cores, from which disks from. We specifically compare our theory with observations. Our theory is supported by observations of extrasolar planets. We analyze the current status of our solar system and find that our solar nebula belongs to the population with a low migration rate. This is consistent with the observation that Jupiter and Saturn are indeed on long-period orbits. Our results further suggest that, in the future observations, a hot Jupiter cannot be found around a star with mass below a critical mass (0.14-0.28 M ?).