Terrestrial planet formation surrounding close binary stars

Abstract

Most stars reside in binary/multiple star systems; however, previous models of planet formation have studied growth of bodies orbiting an isolated single star. Disk material has been observed around both components of some young close binary star systems. Additionally, it has been shown that if planets form at the right places within such disks, they can remain dynamically stable for very long times. Herein, we numerically simulate the late stages of terrestrial planet growth in circumbinary disks around ‘close’ binary star systems with stellar separations 0.05 AU ⩽ a B ⩽ 0.4 AU and binary eccentricities 0 ⩽ e B ⩽ 0.8 . In each simulation, the sum of the masses of the two stars is 1 M ⊙ , and giant planets are included. The initial disk of planetary embryos is the same as that used for simulating the late stages of terrestrial planet formation within our Solar System by Chambers [Chambers, J.E., 2001. Icarus 152, 205–224], and around each individual component of the α Centauri AB binary star system by Quintana et al. [Quintana, E.V., Lissauer, J.J., Chambers, J.E., Duncan, M.J., 2002. Astrophys. J. 576, 982–996]. Multiple simulations are performed for each binary star system under study, and our results are statistically compared to a set of planet formation simulations in the Sun–Jupiter–Saturn system that begin with essentially the same initial disk of protoplanets. The planetary systems formed around binaries with apastron distances Q B ≡ a B ( 1 + e B ) ≲ 0.2 AU are very similar to those around single stars, whereas those with larger maximum separations tend to be sparcer, with fewer planets, especially interior to 1 AU. We also provide formulae that can be used to scale results of planetary accretion simulations to various systems with different total stellar mass, disk sizes, and planetesimal masses and densities.