Impact of Small Bodies onto Disks around Compact Objects - Part One - Impact Satellites

Details Impact of Small Bodies onto Disks around Compact Objects - Part One - Impact Satellites Impact of Small Bodies onto Disks around Compact Objects - Part One - Impact Satellites

Apr 1994

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994mnras.267..557p&link_type=abstract

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 267, NO. 3/APR1, P. 557, 1994

Statistics

Applications

9

Scientific paper

We study the impact of small bodies on to a thin disc surrounding a compact object of mass M. For bound orbits a wide range of semi-major axis and eccentricity distributions is considered and analytical expressions given for the maximum expected impact rates. The actual values, lower by a factor β < 1, are determined by Monte Carlo simulations. Hyperbolic orbits (velocity at infinity v_infinity_) are characterized by their inclination i to the disc normal and gravitational focusing parameter x_e_^2^ = 2GM/V_infinity_^2^R_max_, where R_max_ is the disc outer radius. The total cross-section of the disc is calculated by Monte Carlo simulations and expressed as σ(i, x_e_^2^) = β(i, x_e_^2^)σ_infinity_, where σ_infinity_ = πR_max_^2^(1 + x_e_^2^) is the maximum cross-section. A simple and convenient analytical expression, valid in the case of intermediate- strength gravitational focusing, is given for the crucial cross-section parameter β(i, x_e_^2^) Detailed radial distributions of impacts are also presented graphically and analytical fits given when possible. As sample applications, we first consider the case of a neutron star surrounded by a disc of dense degenerate matter, the test particles being either comets coming from an Oort-type cloud surrounding the system or stray objects randomly encountered by the neutron star-disc system (this includes the comet cloud of another star), and we secondly consider the case of a supermassive black hole in an active galactic nucleus where the test particles are either stars from a central cluster bound to the black hole or stars on hyperbolic orbits (this case includes the merging or close encounter of two galaxies). We end with some remarks concerning the systems (neutron stars or supermassive black holes) most likely to be important `impactors'.

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