  With an average eccentricity of about 0.29, the eccentricity distribution of
extrasolar planets is markedly different from the solar system. Among other
scenarios considered, it has been proposed that eccentricity may grow through
planet-disc interaction. Recently, it has been noticed that the thermodynamical
state of the disc can significantly influence the migration properties of
growing protoplanets. However, the evolution of planetary eccentricity in
radiative discs has not been considered yet. In this paper we study the
evolution of planets on eccentric orbits that are embedded in a
three-dimensional viscous disc and analyse the disc's effect on the orbital
evolution of the planet. We use the three-dimensional hydrodynamical code
NIRVANA that includes full tensor viscosity and implicit radiation transport in
the flux-limited diffusion approximation. The code uses the FARGO-algorithm to
speed up the simulations. First we measure the torque and power exerted on the
planet by the disc for fixed orbits, and then we let the planet start with
initial eccentricity and evolve it in the disc. For locally isothermal we
confirm previous results and find eccentricity damping and inward migration for
planetary cores. In the case of radiative discs, the planets experience an
inward migration as long as its eccentricity lies above a certain threshold.
After the damping of eccentricity cores with masses below 33 Earthmasses begin
to migrate outward in radiative discs, while higher mass cores always migrate
inward. For all planetary masses studied (up to 200 Earthmasses) we find
eccentricity damping. In viscous discs the orbital eccentricity of embedded
planets is damped during the evolution independent of the mass. Hence,
planet-disc interaction does not seem to be a viable mechanism to explain the
observed high eccentricity of exoplanets.
