Binary Formation in Planetesimal Disks I. Equal Mass Planetesimals

TL;DR

This study uses N-body simulations to investigate how binary formation among equal-mass planetesimals in the TNO region increases collision rates, potentially accelerating planetary growth compared to regions without binaries.

Contribution

It is the first systematic study of three-body binary formation effects on collision rates in the TNO region using direct N-body simulations.

Findings

Binaries are involved in 1/3 to 1/2 of collisions in the TNO region.

Collision rates are increased by a factor of a few due to binaries.

Binary formation significantly accelerates accretion in the TNO region.

Abstract

As to April 2010, 48 TNO (trans-Neptunian Object) binaries have been found. This is about 6% of known TNOs. However, in previous theoretical studies of planetary formation in the TNO region, the effect of binary formation has been neglected. TNO binaries can be formed through a variety of mechanisms, such as three-body process, dynamical friction on two massive bodies, inelastic collisions between two bodies etc. Most of these mechanisms become more effective as the distance from the Sun increases. In this paper, we studied three-body process using direct N-body simulations. We systematically changed the distance from the Sun, the number density of planetesimals, and the radius of the planetesimals and studied the effect of the binaries on the collision rate of planetesimals. In the TNO region, binaries are involved in 1/3 - 1/2 of collisions, and the collision rate is increased by about a factor of a few compared to the theoretical estimate for the direct two-body collisions. Thus, it is possible that the binaries formed through three-body process significantly enhance the collision rate and reduce the growth time scale. In the terrestrial planet region, binaries are less important, because the ratio between the Hill radius and physical size of the planetesimals is relatively small. Although the time scale of our simulations is short, they clearly demonstrated that the accretion process in the TNO region is quite different from that in the terrestrial planet region. Simulations which cover longer time scale are required to obtain more accurate estimate for the accretion enhancement.