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RESEARCH PRODUCT

An idealized mechanism for the orbital migration of protoplanets

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We report here how the action of radiation forces on small solid particles in a circumstellar disc could induce a suitable mechanism for orbital migration of protoplanets. The ratio of radiation-to-gravitational forces acting on a particle depends on its physical and chemical properties. As a consequence of this fact, we show that different particles following the same trajectory would move with different velocities. Sufficiently large bodies, insensitive to radiation forces, would accrete dust particles that are moving more slowly, thus spiralling towards the central star and transporting mass and angular momentum from the outer to the inner parts of the circumstellar disc. In the case of quasi-circular motion, a simple law relates the masses of the large bodies to their position