Signatures of massive collisions in debris discs

Abstract

Violent stochastic collisional events have been invoked as a possible explanation for some debris discs displaying pronounced asymmetries or having a great luminosity excess. So far, no thorough modelling of the consequences of such events has been carried out, mainly because of the extreme numerical challenge of coupling the dynamical and collisional evolution of dust. We perform the first fully self-consistent modelling of the aftermath of massive breakups in debris discs. We follow the collisional and dynamical evolution of dust released after the breakup of a Ceres-sized body at 6 AU from its central star. We investigate the duration, magnitude and spatial structure of the signature left by such a violent event, as well as its observational detectability. We use the recently developed LIDT-DD code (Kral et al., 2013), which handles the coupled collisional and dynamical evolution of debris discs. The main focus is placed on the complex interplay between destructive collisions, Keplerian dynamics and radiation pressure forces. We use the GRaTer package to estimate the system's luminosity at different wavelengths. The breakup of a Ceres-sized body at 6 AU creates an asymmetric dust disc that is homogenized, by the coupled action of collisions and dynamics, on a timescale of a few $10^5$ years. The luminosity excess in the breakup's aftermath should be detectable by mid-IR photometry, from a 30 pc distance, over a period of $\sim 10^6$ years that exceeds the duration of the asymmetric phase of the disc (a few $10^5$ years). As for the asymmetric structures, we derive synthetic images for the SPHERE/VLT and MIRI/JWST instruments, showing that they should be clearly visible and resolved from a 10 pc distance. Images at 1.6$\mu$m (marginally), 11.4 and 15.5$\mu$m would show the inner disc structures while 23$\mu$m images would display the outer disc asymmetries.

arXiv comment16 pages, 14 figures, abstract shortened, accepted for publication in A&A

References in corpus (21)

• Catastrophic disruptions revisited
• Building the Terrestrial Planets: Constrained Accretion in the Inner Solar System
• Collisions Between Gravity-Dominated Bodies: 1. Outcome Regimes and Scaling Laws
• Collisions between Gravity-Dominated Bodies: 2. The Diversity of Impact Outcomes during the End Stage of Planet Formation
• Transience of hot dust around sun-like stars
• Absolute Calibration and Characterization of the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer. I. The Stellar Calibrator Sample and the 24 micron Calibration
• Collisional Processes in Extrasolar Planetsimal Disks - Dust Clumps in Fomalhaut's Debris Disk
• Molecular Gas Clumps from the Destruction of Icy Bodies in the $\beta$ Pictoris Debris Disk
• Probing for Exoplanets Hiding in Dusty Debris Disks: Disk Imaging, Characterization, and Exploration with HST/STIS Multi-Roll Coronagraphy
• The Collisional Evolution of Debris Disks
• The Size Distribution of Kuiper Belt Objects
• Prospects for Detection of Catastrophic Collisions in Debris Disks
• Debris from giant impacts between planetary embryos at large orbital radii
• Collisional dust avalanches in debris discs
• Multiple spiral patterns in the transitional disk of HD 100546
• Coupling dynamical and collisional evolution of small bodies II : Forming the Kuiper Belt, the Scattered Disk and the Oort Cloud
• SMACK: A New Algorithm for Modeling Collisions and Dynamics of Planetesimals in Debris Disks
• On the AU Mic debris disk: density profiles, grain properties and dust dynamics
• A Lagrangian Integrator for Planetary Accretion and Dynamics (LIPAD)
• Planet Signatures in Collisionally Active Debris Discs: scattered light images
• Grain Size segregation in debris discs

Cited by in corpus (26)

• Predictions for the secondary CO, C and O gas content of debris discs from the destruction of volatile-rich planetesimals
• Jupiter's Decisive Role in the Inner Solar System's Early Evolution
• Exocometary gas structure, origin and physical properties around $\beta$ Pictoris through ALMA CO multi-transition observations
• Azimuthal asymmetries in the debris disk around HD61005
• ALMA observations of the $\eta$ Corvi debris disc: inward scattering of CO-rich exocomets by a chain of 3-30 M${}_{\oplus }$ planets?
• The Inner Disk Structure, Disk-Planet Interactions, and Temporal Evolution in the Beta Pictoris System: A Two-Epoch HST/STIS Coronagraphic Study
• Collisional modelling of the AU Microscopii debris disc
• Cometary impactors on the TRAPPIST-1 planets can destroy all planetary atmospheres and rebuild secondary atmospheres on planets f, g, h
• Resolving faint structures in the debris disk around TWA7
• A SMACK Model of Colliding Planetesimals in the $\beta$ Pictoris Debris Disk
• Debris Disc Constraints on Planetesimal Formation
• High resolution ALMA and HST images of q${}^1$ Eri: an asymmetric debris disc with an eccentric Jupiter
• Scattering of exocomets by a planet chain: exozodi levels and the delivery of cometary material to inner planets
• Dust size and spatial distributions in debris discs: predictions for exozodiacal dust dragged in from an exo-Kuiper belt
• Dust production in the debris disk around HR 4796 A
• The interplay between radiation pressure and the photoelectric instability in optically thin disks of gas and dust
• Mid-infrared Studies of HD 113766 and HD 172555: Assessing Variability in the Terrestrial Zone of Young Exoplanetary Systems
• Oort cloud asteroids: Collisional evolution, the Nice Model, and the Grand Tack
• The influence of dust grain porosity on the analysis of debris disc observations
• Revealing asymmetrical dust distribution in the inner regions of HD 141569
• Planetary Embryo Collisions and the Wiggly Nature of Extreme Debris Disks
• Numerical predictions for planets in the debris discs of HD 202628 and HD 207129
• Debris Disks: Probing Planet Formation
• Effects of disc asymmetries on astrometric measurements - Can they mimic planets?
• Circumstellar discs: What will be next?
• Debris disks among Kepler solar rotational analog stars