Pencil-Beam Surveys for Trans-Neptunian Objects: Limits on Distant Populations

TL;DR

This paper uses pencil-beam surveys to set new upper limits on the populations of distant Trans-Neptunian objects, particularly Sedna-like and scattered disk objects, refining our understanding of their abundance and distribution.

Contribution

It introduces new methods to derive sensitivity limits of pencil-beam surveys, providing tighter constraints on distant minor body populations in the Solar System.

Findings

Pencil-beam surveys can impose stronger upper limits than wide-area surveys for certain size distributions.

New sensitivity limits extend the understanding of the maximum distances at which these surveys are effective.

Results are consistent with existing population estimates but offer improved constraints for steep size distributions.

Abstract

Two populations of minor bodies in the outer Solar System remain particularly elusive: Scattered Disk objects and Sedna-like objects. These populations are important dynamical tracers, and understanding the details of their spatial- and size-distributions will enhance our understanding of the formation and on-going evolution of the Solar System. By using newly-derived limits on the maximum heliocentric distances that recent pencil-beam surveys for Trans-Neptunian Objects were sensitive to, we determine new upper limits on the total numbers of distant SDOs and Sedna-like objects. While generally consistent with populations estimated from wide-area surveys, we show that for magnitude-distribution slopes of {\alpha} > 0.7-1.0, these pencil-beam surveys provide stronger upper limits than current estimates in literature.