Planet Migration

Abstract

Planet migration is the process by which a planet's orbital radius changes in time. The main agent for causing gas giant planet migration is the gravitational interaction of the young planet with the gaseous disk from which it forms. We describe the migration rates resulting from these interactions based on a simple model for disk properties. These migration rates are higher than is reasonable for planet survival. We discuss some proposed models for which the migration rates are lower. There are major uncertainties in migration rates due to a lack of knowledge about the detailed physical properties of disks. We also describe some additional forms of migration.