Influence of fast interstellar gas flow on dynamics of dust grains

Abstract

The orbital evolution of a dust particle under the action of a fast interstellar gas flow is investigated. The secular time derivatives of Keplerian orbital elements and the radial, transversal, and normal components of the gas flow velocity vector at the pericentre of the particle's orbit are derived. The secular time derivatives of the semi-major axis, eccentricity, and of the radial, transversal, and normal components of the gas flow velocity vector at the pericentre of the particle's orbit constitute a system of equations that determines the evolution of the particle's orbit in space with respect to the gas flow velocity vector. This system of differential equations can be easily solved analytically. From the solution of the system we found the evolution of the Keplerian orbital elements in the special case when the orbital elements are determined with respect to a plane perpendicular to the gas flow velocity vector. Transformation of the Keplerian orbital elements determined for this special case into orbital elements determined with respect to an arbitrary oriented plane is presented. The orbital elements of the dust particle change periodically with a constant oscillation period or remain constant. Planar, perpendicular and stationary solutions are discussed. The applicability of this solution in the Solar system is also investigated. We consider icy particles with radii from 1 to 10 micrometers. The presented solution is valid for these particles in orbits with semi-major axes from 200 to 3000 AU and eccentricities smaller than 0.8, approximately. The oscillation periods for these orbits range from 10^5 to 2 x 10^6 years, approximately.

22 pages, 3 figures; Accepted for publication in Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy

References in corpus (4)

• Kinetic vs. multi-fluid approach for interstellar neutrals in the heliosphere: exploration of the interstellar magnetic field effects
• The Dynamics of Dust Grains in the Outer Solar System
• On how the optical depth tunes the effects of ISM neutral atom flow on debris disks
• Orbital evolution under action of fast interstellar gas flow

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Changes in orientation and shape of protoplanetary discs moving through an ambient medium
• The Stark problem in the Weierstrassian formalism
• Properties of interstellar wind leading to shape morphology of the dust surrounding HD 61005
• On the stability of dust orbits in mean motion resonances with considered perturbation from an interstellar wind
• Orbital evolution under the action of fast interstellar gas flow with non-constant drag coefficient
• Dust particles in mean motion resonances influenced by an interstellar gas flow