Kuiper-belt Binary Formation through Exchange Reactions

Astrophysics, abstract
astro-ph/0303113

From: "Y. Funato" <funato@chianti.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp>
Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2003 13:42:25 GMT   (149kb)

Authors: Yoko Funato (Univ. of Tokyo), Junichiro Makino (Univ. of Tokyo), Piet Hut (Institute for Advanced Study), Eiichiro Kokubo, Daisuke Kinoshita (National Astronomical Observatory, Japan)
Comments: 10 pages, 3 Figures

Recent observationscite{Burnes2002,Veillet2002,Margot2002} have revealed an unexpectedly high binary fraction among the Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) that populate the Kuiper Belt. While TNOs and asteroids are both thought to have formed from the protoplanetary disk in similar ways, the observed TNO binaries are strikingly different in four respectscite{Veillet2002}: their frequency is an order of magnitude larger, the mass ratio of their components is much closer to unity, and their orbits are much wider and more eccentric. Our solution to this conundrum is to start with the formation of a TNO binary population that is similar to the asteroid binary population, but that is subsequently modified by three-body exchange reactions, a process that is far more efficient in the Kuiper belt, because of the much smaller tidal perturbations by the Sun. These exchange reactions naturally replace the initial companions by more massive ones in a process that tends to lead to elongated orbits. Using detailed three-body scattering experiments, we show that our mechanism can naturally account for all four characteristics that distinguish TNO binaries from main-belt asteroid binaries.

References and citations for this submission:
SLAC-SPIRES HEP (refers to , cited by, arXiv reformatted)

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