The initial structure of chondrule dust rims II: charged grains

TL;DR

This study models the early formation of dust rims around chondrules in the solar nebula, emphasizing the effects of dust charging and turbulence on rim structure and growth rate.

Contribution

It introduces a combined Monte Carlo and N-body simulation approach to analyze charged dust grain accretion onto chondrules in different turbulence conditions.

Findings

Charged dust leads to slower rim growth in weak turbulence.

Porosity of dust rims varies with turbulence strength.

Charge influences dust grain trajectories and rim morphology.

Abstract

In order to characterize the early growth of fine-grained dust rims (FGRs) that commonly surround chondrules, we simulate the growth of FGRs through direct accretion of monomers of various sizes onto the chondrule surfaces. Dust becomes charged to varying degrees in the radiative plasma environment of the solar nebula (SN), and the resulting electrostatic force alters the trajectories of colliding dust grains, influencing the structure of the dust rim as well as the time scale of rim formation. We compare the growth of FGRs in protoplanetary disks (PPD) with different turbulence strengths and plasma conditions to previous models which assumed neutral dust grains. We use a combination of a Monte Carlo method and an N-body code to simulate the collision of dust monomers with chondrules: a Monte Carlo algorithm is used to randomly select dust particles that will collide with the chondrule as well as determine the elapsed time interval between collisions; at close approach, the detailed collision process is modeled using an N-body algorithm, Aggregate Builder (AB), to determine the collision outcome, as well as any restructuring of the chondrule rim. The collisions are driven by Brownian motion and coupling to turbulent gas motion in the protoplanetary disk. The charge distribution of the dust rim is modeled, used to calculate the trajectories of dust grains, and then analyze the resulting morphology of the dust rim. In a weakly turbulent region, the decreased relative velocity between charged particles causes small grains to be repelled from the chondrule, causing dust rims to grow more slowly and be composed of larger monomers, which results in a more porous structure. In a highly turbulent region, the presence of charge mainly affects the porosity of the rim by causing dust particles to deviate from the extremities of the rim and reducing the amount of restructuring.