Disassociation energies for the finite density N-body problem

TL;DR

This paper investigates the energy thresholds for disassembly of finite density bodies under gravity, providing rigorous constraints relevant to asteroid disruption scenarios driven by rotational energy.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis of disassociation energies in the N-body problem, including continuum models, to better understand gravitational disruption of rubble pile asteroids.

Findings

Derived energy thresholds for component escape in N-body systems

Established constraints for asteroid disruption due to rotation

Extended results to continuum models of finite density bodies

Abstract

This paper considers the energy required for collections of finite density bodies to undergo escape under internal gravitational interactions alone. As the level of the system energy is increased there are different combinations of components that can escape, until the total energy becomes positive, when the entire system can undergo mutual disruption. The results are also defined for bodies modeled as a continuum. These results provide rigorous constraints for the disruption of rubble pile asteroids when only considering gravitational interaction effects, with the energy provided by rotation of an initial collection of the system. These issues are considered for discrete particles in the N body problem and for size distributions of discrete particles in the continuum limit.