The stochastic nature of migration of disc instability protoplanets in three-dimensional hydrodynamical and MHD simulations of fragmenting discs

ABSTRACT We present a detailed analysis of the nature of migration of protoplanetary clumps formed via disc instability in self-consistent 3D hydrodynamical (HD) and magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations of self-gravitating discs. Motivated by the complex structure of protoplanetary clumps we do not introduce sink particles. We find that the orbital evolution of the clumps has a stochastic character but also exhibits recurrent properties over many orbits. Clump migration is governed by two sources of gravitational torques: a torque originating from a region about twice the Hill sphere around each clump’s orbit, and the torque resulting from clump–clump interactions. Compared to non-magnetized companion runs, the latter are more frequent in MHD simulations, which give rise to more numerous clumps starting off at smaller masses, often below a Neptune mass. Clump–clump interactions can lead to temporary strong accelerations of migration in both directions, but integrated over time provide a lesser impact than disc-driven torques. They can also lead to clump mergers but do not cause ejections; a difference to previous works which adopted sink particles. The local “Hill torque” is responsible for the fast migration, inward or outward. Estimating the characteristic time-scales of conventional migration in our regime, we find that the disc-driven migration time-scales are in agreement with Type III migration. However, the dominant local torque is rapidly fluctuating, which reflects the turbulent nature of the flow. The resulting stochastic migration pattern is markedly different from Type III runaway migration and appears to be a distinctive feature of orbital dynamics in a fragmenting disc.