Constraining Planetary Gas Accretion Rate from Hα Line Width and Intensity: Case of PDS 70 b and c

Abstract

Recent observations of protoplanets embedded in circumstellar disks have shed light on the planet formation process. In particular, detection of hydrogen Balmer-line (H α ) emission gives direct constraints on late-stage accretion onto gas giants. Very recently Haffert et al. measured the spectral line widths, in addition to intensities, of emission from the two protoplanets orbiting PDS 70. Here, we study these protoplanets by applying radiation-hydrodynamic models of the shock-heated accretion flow onto protoplanets that Aoyama et al. have recently developed. As a result, we demonstrate that H α line widths combined with intensities lead to narrowing down the possible ranges of the protoplanetary accretion rate and/or mass significantly. While the current spectral resolution is not high enough to derive a definite conclusion regarding their accretion process, high-resolution spectral imaging of growing protoplanets is highly promising.