EVOLUTIONARY TRACKS OF TRAPPED, ACCRETING PROTOPLANETS: THE ORIGIN OF THE OBSERVED MASS–PERIOD RELATION

The large number of observed exoplanets (≳700) provides important constraints on their origin as deduced from the mass–period diagram of planets. The most surprising features in the diagram are (1) the (apparent) pileup of gas giants at a period of ∼500 days (∼1 AU) and (2) the so-called mass–period relation, which indicates that planetary mass is an increasing function of orbital period. We construct the evolutionary tracks of growing planets …