Overcoming Migration during Giant Planet Formation

In the core accretion model, gas giant formation is a race between growth and migration; for a core to become a Jovian planet, it must accrete its envelope before it spirals into the host star. We use a multizone numerical model to extend our previous investigation of the "window of opportunity" for gas giant formation within a disk. When the collision cross section enhancement due to core atmospheres is taken into account, we find that a broad range of protoplanetary disks possess such a window.