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Quantifying migration rates in gas disks

Quantify with reliable precision the rates of planetary migration driven by gas-disk torques across the relevant ranges of planet mass and disk structure, and develop validated code-comparison frameworks to certify the accuracy and uncertainty of these computations.

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Background

Planet-disk interactions can drive Type I and Type II migration, with additional contributions from co-orbital, thermal, and pebble torques. The migration rate is central to all stages of planet formation, but its precise value depends on complex disk physics and numerical modeling. The author calls for uncertainty quantification and cross-code validation to reduce a major source of model uncertainty.

References

Open questions and problems that I would like to see resolved include, in no particular order: Uncertainty quantification of migration rates. Computing the rate of gas disk migration to a reliably known level of precision, across the range of planet masses and disk structures relevant to planet formation, would remove a major source of uncertainty. Code comparison efforts are a valuable step toward this goal.

— Planet formation theory: an overview (2412.11064 - Armitage, 15 Dec 2024) in Section “Some open questions”, Item 2