Planetesimal clearing and size-dependent asteroid retention by secular resonance sweeping during the depletion of the solar nebula

Abstract

The distribution of heavy elements is anomalously low in the asteroid main belt region compared with elsewhere in the solar system. Observational surveys also indicate a deficit in the number of small ($\le 50$~km size) asteroids that is two orders of magnitude lower than what is expected from the single power-law distribution that results from a collisional coagulation and fragmentation equilibrium. Here, we consider the possibility that a major fraction of the original asteroid population may have been cleared out by Jupiter's secular resonance, as it swept through the main asteroid belt during the depletion of the solar nebula. This effect leads to the excitation of the asteroids' orbital eccentricities. Concurrently, hydrodynamic drag and planet-disk tidal interaction effectively damp the eccentricities of sub-100 km-size and of super-lunar-size planetesimals, respectively. These combined effects lead to the asteroids' orbital decay and clearing from the present-day main belt region ($\sim 2.1-3.3$~AU). The intermediate-size (50 to several hundreds of kilometers) planetesimals therefore preferentially remain as main belt asteroids near their birthplaces, with modest asymptotic eccentricities. The smaller asteroids are the fragments of subsequent disruptive collisions at later times as suggested by the present-day asteroid families. This scenario provides a natural explanation for both the observed low surface density and the size distribution of asteroids in the main belt. It also offers an explanation for the confined spatial extent of the terrestrial planet building blocks without the requirement of extensive migration of Jupiter.

arXiv comment26 pages, 18figures, accepted for publication in the ApJ

References in corpus (29)

• Disk Frequencies and Lifetimes in Young Clusters
• Rapid planetesimal formation in turbulent circumstellar discs
• A low mass for Mars from Jupiter's early gas-driven migration
• Streaming Instabilities in Protoplanetary Disks
• Towards a Deterministic Model of Planetary Formation I: a Desert in the Mass and Semi Major Axis Distributions of Extra Solar Planets
• The Mass-Radius Relation for 65 Exoplanets Smaller than 4 Earth Radii
• Asteroids Were Born Big
• A torque formula for non-isothermal Type I planetary migration - II. Effects of diffusion
• Solar System evolution from compositional mapping of the asteroid belt
• Planetesimal Formation by Gravitational Instability
• 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
• Towards planetesimals: dense chondrule clumps in the protoplanetary nebula
• Formation of the Terrestrial Planets from a Narrow Annulus
• Analytical protostellar disk models 1: the effect of internal dissipation and surface irradiation on the structure of disks and the location of the snow line around Sun-like stars
• Grain Retention and Formation of Planetesimals near the Snow Line in MRI-driven Turbulent Protoplanetary Disks
• Toward a Deterministic Model of Planetary Formation VII: Eccentricity Distribution of Gas Giants
• Post-Oligarchic Evolution of Protoplanetary Embryos and the Stability of Planetary Systems
• Asteroid Belts in Debris Disk Twins: VEGA and FOMALHAUT
• Planetesimal formation around the snow line in MRI-driven turbulent protoplanetary disks
• A low density of 0.8 g/cc for the Trojan binary asteroid 617 Patroclus
• On the Migration of Jupiter and Saturn: Constraints from Linear Models of Secular Resonant Coupling with the Terrestrial Planets
• The Transitional Protoplanetary Disk Frequency as a Function of Age: Disk Evolution in the Coronet Cluster, Taurus, and Other 1--8 Myr-old Regions
• Dynamical Shakeup of Planetary Systems II. N-body simulations of Solar System terrestrial planet formation induced by secular resonance sweeping
• The Importance of Disk Structure in Stalling Type I Migration
• Eccentricity Evolution of Extrasolar Multiple Planetary Systems due to the Depletion of Nascent Protostellar Disks
• Angular Momemtum of Binary Asteroids: Implication for their possible origin
• Tidal Barrier and the Asymptotic Mass of Proto Gas-Giant Planets
• Embryo impacts and gas giant mergers I: Dichotomy of Jupiter and Saturn's core mass

Cited by in corpus (17)

• Origin of water in the inner Solar System: Planetesimals scattered inward during Jupiter and Saturn's rapid gas accretion
• The New Generation Planetary Population Synthesis (NGPPS). I. Bern global model of planet formation and evolution, model tests, and emerging planetary systems
• Catching drifting pebbles I. Enhanced pebble accretion efficiencies for eccentric planets
• A Tale of Planet Formation: From Dust to Planets
• The impact of pebble flux regulated planetesimal formation on giant planet formation
• Terrestrial planet formation: Dynamical shake-up and the low mass of Mars
• Growing Mars fast: High-resolution GPU simulations of embryo formation
• Clearing residual planetesimals by sweeping secular resonances in transitional disks: a lone-planet scenario for the wide gaps in debris disks around Vega and Fomalhaut
• Migration processes in the Solar System and their role in the evolution of the Earth and planets
• The influence of the secular perturbation of an intermediate-mass companion: I. Eccentricity excitation of disk stars at the Galactic center
• On the multiple generations of planetary embryos
• Dynamical Evolution of Closely Packed Multiple Planetary Systems Subject to Atmospheric Mass-Loss
• Debris Disks: Probing Planet Formation
• The influence of the secular perturbation of an intermediate-mass companion: II. Ejection of hypervelocity stars from the Galactic Center
• Chondrule Formation by the Jovian Sweeping Secular Resonance
• Abundances of ordinary chondrites in thermally evolving planetesimals
• Episodic planetesimal disruptions triggered by dissipation of gas disk