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Numerical Simulations of Dense Collisional Systems with Extended Distribution of Particle Sizes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2017

H. Salo
H. Salo*
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Oulu, SF-90570 Oulu, Finland

Extract

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The dynamical evolution of dense planetary rings, such as Saturn's rings, is mainly governed by the mutual impacts between macroscopic icy particles. The local equilibrium state is determined by the energy loss in partially inelastic impacts and the viscous gain of energy from the systematic velocity field. Due to frequent impacts the time-scale for the establishment of local energy equilibrium is very short, as compared to the time-scale for radial evolution, which is determined by viscous spreading, and in some cases also by the angular momentum exchange with external satellites. Therefore, local and radial behaviour can, to a large extent be studied separately. This fact is utilized by the local simulation method (Wisdom and Tremaine, 1988; Salo, 1991), following the orbital evolution in a small co-moving region inside the rings with periodic boundary conditions. Compared to previous simulation methods (Salo, 1987) this enables much higher surface density. With the presently attainable number of particles (up to several thousands), realistic modeling of dense regions is possible, taking simultaneously into account the particle size distribution, rotation of particles, as well as vertical self-gravity. By combining several local simulations with different surface densities, it is possible to deduce the expected radial behaviour as well.

Type
Part II - Planetary Rings
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 152: Chaos, Resonance and Collective Dynamical Phenomena in the Solar System , 1992 , pp. 103 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1992 

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