English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

The composition of giant planets is imprinted by their migration history andthe compositional structure of their hosting disks. Studies in recentliterature investigate how the abundances of C and O can constrain theformation pathways of giant planets forming within few tens of au from thestar. New ALMA observations, however, suggest planet-forming regions possiblyextending to hundreds of au. We explore the implications of these widerformation environments through n-body simulations of growing and migratinggiant planets embedded in planetesimal disks, coupled with a compositionalmodel of the protoplanetary disk where volatiles are inherited from themolecular cloud and refractories are calibrated against extrasolar and SolarSystem data. We find that the C/O ratio provides limited insight on theformation pathways of giant planets that undergo large-scale migration. Thislimitation can be overcome thanks to nitrogen and sulphur. Jointly using theC/N, N/O and C/O ratios breaks any degeneracy in the formation and migrationtracks of giant planets. The use of elemental ratios normalized to therespective stellar ratios supplies additional information on the nature ofgiant planets, thanks to the relative volatility of O, C and N in disks. Whenthe planetary metallicity is dominated by the accretion of solids C/N* $>$ C/O*$>$ N/O* (* denoting this normalized scale), otherwise N/O* $>$ C/O* $>$ C/N*.The S/N ratio provides an additional independent probe into the metallicity ofgiant planets and their accretion of solids.

Tracing the formation history of giant planets in protoplanetary disks with Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen and Sulphur