N-body simulations of planetesimal evolution: effect of varying impactor mass ratio

Physics

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Solar System Formation, Planetesimal Evolution, Collisional Physics

Scientific paper

We have begun work on a project to carry out the highest resolution, direct, large-scale numerical simulations to date of runaway growth in a protoplanetary disk. Our simulations will begin with 106 particles and handle collisions in a realistic manner. Traditionally, numerical simulations of planet formation use extrapolations of laboratory impact experiments in the strength regime to model the effects of fragmentation in planetesimal collisions. Such extrapolations may give misleading results since numerical simulations show that more energy is needed to disperse than to disrupt a planetesimal in the gravity regime. Moreover, these experiments cannot account self-consistently for post-impact gravitational reaccumulation, as is seen to take place in simulations of tidal disruption and low- and high-speed impacts. However, computer capabilities still preclude resolving the detailed fragmentation process for millions of planetesimals simultaneously. Instead, we first construct a database of collision outcomes in which the planetesimals are modeled as multi-particle gravitational aggregates in isolation with a large range of encounter speeds and distances. By modeling the collisions between planetesimals first, creating a database of collision outcomes, we can improve the realism of our planet formation simulations by detecting collisions in the disk and extracting the collision outcome from the database. Here we will present preliminary results.

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