Binary formation in planetesimal disks. II. Planetesimals with a mass spectrum

Abstract

Many massive objects have been found in the outer region of the solar system. How they were formed and evolved has not been well understood, although there have been intensive studies of the accretion process of terrestrial planets. One of the mysteries is the existence of binary planetesimals with near-equal mass components and highly eccentric orbits. These binary planetesimals are quite different from the satellites observed in the asteroid belt region. The ratio of the Hill radius to the physical radius of the planetesimals is much larger for the outer region of the disk, compared to the inner region of the disk. The Hill radius increases with the semimajor axis. Therefore, planetesimals in the outer region can form close and eccentric binaries, while those in the inner region would simply collide. In this paper, we carried out N-body simulations in different regions of the disk and studied whether binaries form in the outer region of the disk. We found that large planetesimals tend to form binaries. A significant fraction of large planetesimals are components of binaries. Planetesimals that become the components of binaries eventually collide with a third body, through three-body encounters. Thus, the existence of binaries can enhance the growth rate of planetesimals in the trans-Neptunian object region.