Small-grain erosion and E-ring implications

Details Small-grain erosion and E-ring implications Small-grain erosion and E-ring implications

Dec 1998

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998baas...30.1449j&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #30, #55.P10; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 30, p.1449

Other

Scientific paper

The sputtering of a small grain embedded in a plasma or hot gas, process relevant in both circumstellar and planetary environments, is modeled using a binary collision code. The Monte Carlo technique is used to describe the transport of the atoms set in motion in the solid by an incident ion, and the sputtering from the surface of a grain induced by collisional cascades. This method can be directly applied to erosion of circumstellar, predominantly carbon and silicate grains, by low-energy C and H shock waves. It is shown that such grains erode much more rapidly than previously assumed, and that an order-of-magnitude increase in the erosion rate can occur for very small grains. On the other hand, water-ice grains, common in planetary magnetospheres, are more difficult to model since the sputtering from ice is mainly electron-induced. Here we present a model for water-ice, calibrated to the laboratory sputtering, and describing the enhancement in the yield due to erosion from the edges and back surfaces. We show that erosion rate increases substantially when the ion penetration depth becomes comparable to the grain radius. The grain size effect manifests itself even when the grain radius is several times larger than the mean penetration depth of the incident particle. Therefore, for the ions not energetic enough to completely penetrate through the grain, the transport of recoils leads to enhanced erosion from the `sides' of a grain significantly shortening their lifetime. In the case of the E-Ring our calculations show that energetic keV ions rapidly erode submicron grains giving a possible explanation for narrow particle size distribution of the Saturnian E-ring.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Small-grain erosion and E-ring implications does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Small-grain erosion and E-ring implications, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Small-grain erosion and E-ring implications will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1000019