A metallicity sweet spot for disc fragmentation and planet formation

Abstract

Fragmentation of gravitationally unstable discs offers an alternate formation mechanism for gas giant planets and brown dwarfs on wide orbits. Metallicity plays a key role in disc evolution from the onset of gravitational instability to the formation of planets. We aim to determine the effect of metallicity on disc fragmentation and on the properties of disc-instability planets. We model gravitationally unstable discs with varying metallicity ($0.01-10\, \rm {Z_{\odot }}$) using the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics code phantom. Our simulations reveal a “sweet spot” for fragmentation at $0.3\, \rm {Z_{\odot }}$, where cooling is most efficient, with fragmentation also happening less vigorously at higher and lower metallicities. However, further away from the sweet spot, fragmentation becomes more difficult and is eventually suppressed at extreme low and high metallicities ($0.01\, \rm {Z_{\odot }}$ and $10\, \rm {Z_{\odot }}$, respectively), where the disc cools inefficiently. Discs with metallicities close to the sweet spot form more planets per disc, faster, and with lower initial masses than fragmenting discs with higher or lower metallicities. Our results may explain the slight overabundance of wide-orbit giant planets observed around metal-poor stars; these planets may have formed via disc fragmentation.