The Initial Mass Distribution For Exoplanetary Systems
Résumé
The initial mass distribution for exoplanet systems, prior to the onset of planet-planet scattering, has yet to be adequately constrained. Scattering has previously explained a broad range of observed properties, such as large eccentricities, packing, and mean motion resonances, and hence is a promising theory. We present the results of numerical simulations of scattering-produced multiple planet systems arising from different initial power law mass distributions. Each simulation begins with 5-26 planets on nearly coplanar and circular orbits. We explore which of these power law distributions most accurately reproduces the observed mass distribution, thereby constraining the initial mass function.