Evolution of Steam Worlds: Energetic Aspects

Abstract Sub-Neptunes occupy an intriguing region of planetary mass–radius space, where theoretical models of interior structure predict that they could be water-rich, where water is in steam and supercritical state. Such planets are expected to evolve according to the same principles as canonical H 2 –He rich planets, but models that assume a water-dominated atmosphere consistent with the interior have not been developed yet. Here, we present a state-of-the-art structure and evolution model for water-rich sub-Neptunes. Our setup combines an existing atmospheric model that controls the heat loss from the planet, and an interior model that acts as the reservoir of energy. We compute evolutionary tracks of planetary radius over time. We find that planets with pure water envelopes have smaller radii than predicted by previous models, and the change in radius is much slower (within ∼10%). We also find that water in the deep interior is colder than previously suggested, and can transition from plasma state to superionic ice, which can have additional implications for their evolution. We provide a grid of evolutionary tracks that can be used to infer the bulk water content of sub-Neptunes. We compare the bulk water content inferred by this model and other models available in the literature, and find statistically significant differences between models when the uncertainties on measured mass and radius are both smaller than 10%. This study shows the importance of pursuing efforts in the modeling of volatile-rich planets, and how to connect them to observations.