On the Vertical Structure of Dilute Planetary Rings

✍ Scribed by Volker Simon; James T. Jenkins

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 322 KB
• Volume: 110
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0019-1035
• DOI: 10.1006/icar.1994.1110

✦ Synopsis

We consider a dilute axisymmetric planetary ring consisting of identical smooth inelastic spheres. We first obtain approximate analytic expressions relating the components of the second moment of the velocity distribution to the coefficient of restitution of a particle collision. Then we employ a form of the energy flux appropriate for inelastic particles and calculate the variation of density and mean kinetic energy (i.e., the granular temperature) normal to the ring plane. We find that the density distribution differs only slightly from that corresponding to a uniform temperature. Finally, we use these results together with a boundary condition obtained from the (6 / 7) Lindblad resonance at the outer edge of Saturn's Aring to relate the midplane value of the granular temperature, the midplane value of the solid volume fraction, and the particle diameter to either the coefficient of restitution or the optical depth. 1994 Academic Press, Inc.