Computer Science
Scientific paper
Aug 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001phdt.........9l&link_type=abstract
Thesis (PhD). UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER, Source DAI-B 62/02, p. 898, Aug 2001, 251 pages.
Computer Science
1
Scientific paper
This thesis looks at the dynamics of regions of rings that are located close to a small moon so that they receive a significant eccentricity from every pass by that moon. All investigations were performed with highly optimized, large N-body numerical simulations that use new boundary conditions specifically designed for this type of system. The first system explored is the Encke gap region where the small moon Pan has cleared out a 325 km region of Saturn's rings. Simulations indicate that the behavior of this system is significantly more complex than what is found by standard fluid models of ring dynamics due largely to the fact that the particles epicyclic phases are aligned. The wake peaks decline exponentially at the end of the simulations and the dependence of this rate of this decline was examined as a function of optical depth, particle size, and coefficient of restitution. The variations are non-monotonical with optical depth and coefficient of restitution. The alignment of epicyclic phases in the wakes enables the guiding centers of the particles to undergo efficient radial migration. This process allows the particle guiding centers to group at the edges of the simulation region and in some cases is seen to result in ringlet formation. For regions more distant from the perturber than the edge of the Encke gap, the synodic periods are shorter and as a result, the forced eccentricities do not damp out completely in a synodic period. When this occurs, the presence of Lindblad resonances is seen. These resonances are observed to induce periodic structures in regions far from the Encke gap and speed narrow ringlet formation in systems resembling Saturn's F-ring. However, the narrow rings do not have to be located in resonances to be maintained, as the standard theory of shepherding would imply. Simulations including size distributions exhibited a buildup of small particles at the boundaries, in agreement with Voyager observations. Simulations involving self-gravity showed that the self-gravitating structures normally formed in rings do not coexist with wakes. This could have implications for determining actual particle size distributions from Cassini observations.
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