A solution for the density dichotomy problem of Kuiper Belt objects with multi-species streaming instability and pebble accretion

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Hauptverfasser: Cañas, Manuel H., Lyra, Wladimir, Carrera, Daniel, Krapp, Leonardo, Sengupta, Debanjan, Simon, Jacob B., Umurhan, Orkan M., Yang, Chao-Chin, Youdin, Andrew
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Cañas, Manuel H.
Lyra, Wladimir
Carrera, Daniel
Krapp, Leonardo
Sengupta, Debanjan
Simon, Jacob B.
Umurhan, Orkan M.
Yang, Chao-Chin
Youdin, Andrew
author_facet Cañas, Manuel H.
Lyra, Wladimir
Carrera, Daniel
Krapp, Leonardo
Sengupta, Debanjan
Simon, Jacob B.
Umurhan, Orkan M.
Yang, Chao-Chin
Youdin, Andrew
contents Kuiper belt objects show an unexpected trend, whereby large bodies have increasingly higher densities, up to five times greater than their smaller counterparts. Current explanations for this trend assume formation at constant composition, with the increasing density resulting from gravitational compaction. However, this scenario poses a timing problem to avoid early melting by decay of $^{26}$Al. We aim to explain the density trend in the context of streaming instability and pebble accretion. Small pebbles experience lofting into the atmosphere of the disk, being exposed to UV and partially losing their ice via desorption. Conversely, larger pebbles are shielded and remain more icy. We use a shearing box model including gas and solids, the latter split into ices and silicate pebbles. Self-gravity is included, allowing dense clumps to collapse into planetesimals. We find that the streaming instability leads to the formation of mostly icy planetesimals, albeit with an unexpected trend that the lighter ones are more silicate-rich than the heavier ones. We feed the resulting planetesimals into a pebble accretion integrator with a continuous size distribution, finding that they undergo drastic changes in composition as they preferentially accrete silicate pebbles. The density and masses of large KBOs are best reproduced if they form between 15 and 22\,AU. Our solution avoids the timing problem because the first planetesimals are primarily icy, and $^{26}$Al is mostly incorporated in the slow phase of silicate pebble accretion. Our results lend further credibility to the streaming instability and pebble accretion as formation and growth mechanisms.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2401_04294
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A solution for the density dichotomy problem of Kuiper Belt objects with multi-species streaming instability and pebble accretion
Cañas, Manuel H.
Lyra, Wladimir
Carrera, Daniel
Krapp, Leonardo
Sengupta, Debanjan
Simon, Jacob B.
Umurhan, Orkan M.
Yang, Chao-Chin
Youdin, Andrew
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Kuiper belt objects show an unexpected trend, whereby large bodies have increasingly higher densities, up to five times greater than their smaller counterparts. Current explanations for this trend assume formation at constant composition, with the increasing density resulting from gravitational compaction. However, this scenario poses a timing problem to avoid early melting by decay of $^{26}$Al. We aim to explain the density trend in the context of streaming instability and pebble accretion. Small pebbles experience lofting into the atmosphere of the disk, being exposed to UV and partially losing their ice via desorption. Conversely, larger pebbles are shielded and remain more icy. We use a shearing box model including gas and solids, the latter split into ices and silicate pebbles. Self-gravity is included, allowing dense clumps to collapse into planetesimals. We find that the streaming instability leads to the formation of mostly icy planetesimals, albeit with an unexpected trend that the lighter ones are more silicate-rich than the heavier ones. We feed the resulting planetesimals into a pebble accretion integrator with a continuous size distribution, finding that they undergo drastic changes in composition as they preferentially accrete silicate pebbles. The density and masses of large KBOs are best reproduced if they form between 15 and 22\,AU. Our solution avoids the timing problem because the first planetesimals are primarily icy, and $^{26}$Al is mostly incorporated in the slow phase of silicate pebble accretion. Our results lend further credibility to the streaming instability and pebble accretion as formation and growth mechanisms.
title A solution for the density dichotomy problem of Kuiper Belt objects with multi-species streaming instability and pebble accretion
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.04294