Evaluating an Embryo Origin for Detached TNOs within Full Kuiper Belt Formation Models

TL;DR

This study uses numerical simulations to evaluate whether planetary embryos could have detached the perihelia of detached TNOs during Kuiper belt formation, concluding they are unlikely to be the primary cause.

Contribution

The paper provides the first detailed numerical analysis testing the embryo hypothesis for detached TNOs within full Kuiper belt formation models.

Findings

Embryos are unlikely to reach the high-perihelion orbits needed to detach TNOs.

Embryos take over 100 Myrs to reach these orbits, often after primordial belt ejection.

Detached TNOs from embryos have a semimajor axis distribution biased toward smaller values.

Abstract

With perihelia well beyond Neptune, but semimajor axes and eccentricities indicative of substantial perturbation, the origins of detached trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) remain a dynamical puzzle. In particular, detached TNOs with orbital inclinations below ~25 degrees are not easily generated from any known mechanism currently in the modern solar system. One notable hypothesis for the origins of detached TNOs is that a ~Mars- to Earth-mass planetary embryo detached the perihelia of these objects from Neptune during the process of Kuiper belt formation before the embryo itself was ejected. We numerically model this scenario via simulations of Kuiper belt formation from a primordial planetesimal belt that is dispersed through the migration of the giant planets. In addition to ~100,000 Kuiper belt objects, each of our simulations contains a hypothetical population of embryos in the primordial belt. We find that our embryos are unlikely to reach the high-perihelion, large semimajor axis orbit necessary to efficiently detach TNO perihelia from Neptune's influence. Moreover, embryos will typically take at least 100 Myrs to reach these unlikely orbits, at which point most of the primordial belt will have already been ejected by the planets, limiting the available population that can be detached. Finally, the TNOs that our embryos do detach consistently have a semimajor axis distribution that is more biased toward small values than observed detached TNOs have. Thus, we conclude that planetary embryos in the primordial Kuiper belt are not likely to have been the primary mechanism for the origin of detached TNOs.