Velocity Evolution of Planetesimals: Unified Analytical Formulas and Comparisons with N-Body Simulations
✍ Scribed by Glen R. Stewart; Shigeru Ida
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2000
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 241 KB
- Volume
- 143
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0019-1035
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
are reconciled and some minor errors in the earlier work are corrected. The corrected analytical theory is compared with a series of N-body simulations of one-and two-component planetesimal systems. For planetesimals on noncrossing orbits, the contribution to velocity evolution is found to be about two times as large as was previously estimated. In addition, N-body simulatiuons show that the rate of dynamical friction is about 30% less effective at driving two-component systems toward equipartition of random kinetic energy than is estimated by the theory. When these adjustments are made to the theory, we find remarkable agreement with the N-body simulations. These results essentially support previously published estimates for the time scale of runaway accretion of planetary embryos.