Planet formation from planetesimals and diversity of planetary systems

Here, gravitational scattering of planetesimals (viscous stirring and dynamical friction) and their growth through pairwise collisions (runaway/oligarchic growth) are explained in detail. The masses of accreted protoplanets depend on initial disk surface density and semimajor axis. When the mass of a protoplanet becomes larger than a critical value that is a few to ten earth masses, runaway gas accretion from the disk onto the planet starts. The dependence of the protoplanet masses is responsible for the diversity of extrasolar planetary systems, although orbital migrations of planets are also important drivers to produce the diversity.