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Title:
A New Algorithm for Self-consistent Three-dimensional Modeling of Collisions in Dusty Debris Disks
Authors:
Stark, Christopher C.; Kuchner, Marc J.
Affiliation:
AA(Department of Physics, University of Maryland, Box 197, 082 Regents Drive, College Park, MD 20742-4111, USA ), AB(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory, Code 667, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA)
Publication:
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 707, Issue 1, pp. 543-553 (2009). (ApJ Homepage)
Publication Date:
12/2009
Origin:
IOP
ApJ Keywords:
circumstellar matter, interplanetary medium, methods: N-body simulations, methods: numerical, planetary systems
DOI:
10.1088/0004-637X/707/1/543
Bibliographic Code:
2009ApJ...707..543S

Abstract

We present a new "collisional grooming" algorithm that enables us to model images of debris disks where the collision time is less than the Poynting-Robertson (PR) time for the dominant grain size. Our algorithm uses the output of a collisionless disk simulation to iteratively solve the mass flux equation for the density distribution of a collisional disk containing planets in three dimensions. The algorithm can be run on a single processor in ~1 hr. Our preliminary models of disks with resonant ring structures caused by terrestrial mass planets show that the collision rate for background particles in a ring structure is enhanced by a factor of a few compared to the rest of the disk, and that dust grains in or near resonance have even higher collision rates. We show how collisions can alter the morphology of a resonant ring structure by reducing the sharpness of a resonant ring's inner edge and by smearing out azimuthal structure. We implement a simple prescription for particle fragmentation and show how PR drag and fragmentation sort particles by size, producing smaller dust grains at smaller circumstellar distances. This mechanism could cause a disk to look different at different wavelengths, and may explain the warm component of dust interior to Fomalhaut's outer dust ring seen in the resolved 24 μm Spitzer image of this system.
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