BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Population Statistics of Planet and Brown Dwarf Formation via Grav
 itational Instability - Duncan Forgan (St. Andrews)
DTSTART:20170208T160000Z
DTEND:20170208T170000Z
UID:TALK69716@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ed Gillen
DESCRIPTION:The gravitational instability (GI) theory of planet/brown dwar
 f formation proposes that self-gravitating discs could fragment to form bo
 und objects.  These objects are predicted to possess initial masses of aro
 und 3 Jupiter masses or larger.  We now have the tools to probe GI in acti
 on\, thanks to ALMA's recent advances in detecting both spiral structure (
 Perez et al 2016) and the fragmentation process (Tobin et al 2016).\n\nThe
  raises the possibility that the exoplanet population\, while largely asse
 mbled by core accretion\, could contain a "contaminant" subset of massive 
 planets formed via GI.  More recent "tidal downsizing" theories suggest th
 at this contamination could extend well into the Neptune regime and beyond
 .  We must now ask - what does the population of objects predicted by the 
 latest GI theory look like? \n\nThe only way we can achieve the statistica
 l power needed to answer these questions is with population synthesis mode
 ls\, which until recently only existed for core accretion.  I will describ
 e our ground-breaking population synthesis models of GI\, and discuss thei
 r implications for interpreting current and future exoplanet data.
LOCATION:Martin Ryle Seminar Room\, Kavli Institute
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR