Delayed cooling preserves a young giant planet's large radius by reducing the escape of internal energy. Enhanced atmospheric opacity, an irradiation-maintained outer radiative blanket, and composition gradients that inhibit convection can slow Kelvin-Helmholtz contraction. These mechanisms retain existing heat rather than supplying a new deep heat source.
A stabilizing composition gradient can suppress large overturning motions while permitting double-diffusive convection in small layers separated by interfaces. If heat loss is less efficient than in a single well-mixed adiabat, the planet retains more entropy and contracts more slowly. This is a proposed delayed-cooling contribution to hot-Jupiter radius inflation, with an effectiveness that depends on the gradient and layer structure.
Articles by others on the same topic
There are currently no matching articles.