Hydrogen Engulfment into Sub-Neptune Cores through Magma Ocean Convective Surface Renewal

[2608.14518] Hydrogen Engulfment into Sub-Neptune Cores through Magma Ocean Convective Surface Renewal Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Search arXiv Press Enter to search · Advanced search Astrophysics > Earth and Planetary Astrophysics arXiv:2608.14518 (astro-ph) [Submitted on 14 Aug 2026] Title: Hydrogen Engulfment into Sub-Neptune Cores through Magma Ocean Convective Surface Renewal Authors: Edward D. Young View a PDF of the paper titled Hydrogen Engulfment into Sub-Neptune Cores through Magma Ocean Convective Surface Renewal, by Edward D. Young View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: A convective surface renewal explanation for ingassing of hydrogen from H2-rich envelopes into molten cores of growing planets is presented, with particular application to sub-Neptunes. The ingassing of hydrogen occurs at a moving front comprising the upper boundary of the magma ocean that engulfs hydrogen from the envelope above as it moves. The mechanism of engulfment is surface renewal as the upper diffusive boundary layer is diluted by convection. Surface renewal results in ingassing even where the stabilizing buoyancy of the low-density hydrogen neutralizes the destabilizing thermally-driven buoyancy. It is ultimately driven by cooling. Beginning during the gaseous disk phase, when hydrogen is effectively available in infinite supply, sub-Neptunes can acquire enough hydrogen to permit global core-envelope equilibrium. The structures are therefore consistent with hydrogen-rich, supercritical magma oceans overlain by hydrogen-rich envelopes. The process of surface renewal has implications for other magma ocean - atmosphere interactions in general. Comments: 19 pages, 6 figures, submitted to ApJ, available for comment Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) Cite as: arXiv:2608.14518 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2608.14518v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.14518 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Edward Young [ view email ] [v1] Fri, 14 Aug 2026 17:39:59 UTC (3,279 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Hydrogen Engulfment into Sub-Neptune Cores through Magma Ocean Convective Surface Renewal, by Edward D. Young View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Current browse context: astro-ph.EP < prev | next > new | recent | 2026-08 Change to browse by: astro-ph References & Citations NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) IArxiv recommender toggle IArxiv Recommender ( What is IArxiv? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs . Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax ( What is MathJax? ) We gratefully acknowledge support from our major funders , member institutions , , and all contributors. About · Help · Contact · Subscribe · Copyright · Privacy · Accessibility · Operational Status (opens in new tab) Major funding support from

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