Volatile-metal partitioning during accretion

[timlichtenberg]

It would make sense to generalise the initial conditions for PROTEUS to bulk parameters instead of mantle parameters. At the moment, we set the conditions in the mantle + atmosphere system, but ignore what could be in the core. This means that to get to whole-planet composition, one needs to make an assumption about how much may be locked up in the core and post-process.

Instead, we could generalise the initial conditions to mean bulk parameters by introducing functionality to compute the partitioning of H-C-N-S(-P) elements into the metal core. This can be done by, for example, fixing the metal-volatile partitioning according to simple partitioning coefficients like reviewed in Suer et al. (2023) (Tab. 1).

This should probably be handled through the ABASSI module.

[nichollsh]

Are there any plans to handle this in atmodeller? Seems like this would have to be included in the outgassing calculation, if some of the volatile elements are going to be partitioned into the core (or at least into metal droplets) as well as the mantle and atmosphere.

[timlichtenberg]

I guess it could, even though this would be a substantial extension. The partitioning into the core would be highly time-dependent if ongoing accretion is modelled, so possibly ABASSI would be a better place for this. Even though other models assume that the core is "open" or "closed" to a certain mass fraction.