Comparison of Numerical Integration and 'Gas Dynamic' Modelling of Runaway Planetesimal Growth
Comparison of Numerical Integration and 'Gas Dynamic' Modelling of Runaway Planetesimal Growth
复制标题
失控星子生长的数值积分和“气体动力学”模型的比较
DOI:
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发表时间:
1996
期刊:
影响因子:
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通讯作者:
J. Chambers
中科院分区:
文献类型:
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作者:
G. Wetherill;E. Kokubo;S. Ida;J. Chambers
[Summary. The orbital and collisional evolution of 3000 planetesimals, initially at very low relative velocities has been presented (1). These are compared with calculations of the identical problem using the "gas dynamic" technique, in which the planetesimals are treated like molecules in the kinetic theory of gases. Comparison of the results shows excellent agreement. This comparison supports the validity of using the gas dynamic approach to address the many problems that are not amenable to detailed numerical integration.] In the development of theories of planetary formation, a fundamental problem is that of the dynamical evolution and collisional accumulation of an initial assemblage of planetesimals moving in heliocentric orbits (2). In its full generality, this problem is too complex to calculate in a straightforward way. For this reason, investigators must make use of models that try to capture some essential features of the problem, at the cost of failing to treat others that are likely to be of importance. Among others, two such approaches are: (1) Following the three-dimensional evolution of the planetesimal assemblage by straightforward numerical integration of the equations of motion of the individual bodies (1). This has the advantage of including much of the fundamental physics in a very accurate way. A disadvantage is the practical limitation to a late stage in the planetary growth process when the number of bodies is small enough (e.g., 5 100) to permit the computational effort to be manageable on a sufficiently long timescale (lo7 to lo8 years). (2) Making use of an analogy with the kinetic theory of gases, in which averaged aspects of an assemblage of bodies (molecules or planetesimals) can be determined even when the number of bodies is too large to permit them to be considered individually (3,4,5). This approach is not limited computationally. In addition, it is simple to include the physically important effects of fragmentation into the calculations, despite the extremely large number of bodies associated with this phenomenon. It does require, however, questionable assumptions regarding the validity of such things as the use of averaged quantities, and of the way in which 3-body effects and long range forces are included. For these reasons, neither of these approaches, nor any other existing alternatives, are alone adequate to treat the problem. Insight into the degree of validity of the second aproach can be obtained, however, by comparative calculations of special problems that are amenable to treatment by both techniques. A numerical integration of one such problem has been reported recently (1). The initial conditions are 3000 1 0 ~ ~ ~ bodies, beetween 0.98 and 1.02 AU, and with initial eccentricities of two Hill units (e = 5.1 x and inclinations of one Hill unit. In order to obtain a usefully large degree of evolution with the available (major) computer resources, it was necessary to artificially increase the radius of the bodies, equivalent to their having a material density of 0.016 g/cm3. The orbital and collisional evolution of this system was calculated for 20,000 years, equivalent to several hundred thousand years at more realistic densities. Exactly the same problem was calculated using a "gas dynamic" program (6), including use of the low material density. This program was modified only by removal from the calculation of phenomena such as collisional fragmentation and gas drag that were not included in the numerical integration. The results of the two calculations were remarkably similar. The cumulative mass distributions after 20,000 years are shown in Fig. 1. At this time, in both cases the total number of bodies had decreased from 3000 to about 1000. Of these, the majority (600) still have their original mass, comprising 20% of the total mass. Most of the mass is in a very steeply (dnldr) m r-5.5 distributed "accumulation cascade" in which most of the mass is concentrated at low masses. At the high mass end of the distribution there are a few > 1 0 ~ ~ ~ runaway bodies detached from the steep accumulation cascade. The runaways contain 21% of the total mass for the numerical integration calculation and 33% of the total mass for the gas dynamic calculation. The size and number of these runaway bodies is subject to stochastic fluctuations. It is quite possible that moderate but