Numerical Simulations of Saturn's B Ring: Granular Friction as a Mediator between Self-Gravity and Viscous Overstability

Abstract

We study the B ring's complex optical depth structure. The source of this structure may be the complex dynamics of the Keplerian shear and the self-gravity of the ring particles. The outcome of these dynamic effects depends sensitively on the collisional and physical properties of the particles. Two mechanisms can emerge that dominate the macroscopic physical structure of the ring: self-gravity wakes and viscous overstability. Here we study the interplay between these two mechanisms by using our recently developed particle collision method that allows us to better model the inter-particle contact physics. We find that for a constant ring surface density and particle internal density, particles with rough surfaces tend to produce axisymmetric ring features associated with the viscous overstability, while particles with smoother surfaces produce self-gravity wakes.

10 pages, 7 figures, Accepted for publication to the Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (2)

• Low-speed Impact Simulations into Regolith in Support of Asteroid Sampling Mechanism Design I.: Comparison with 1-g Experiments
• Exploring overstabilities in Saturn's A ring using two stellar occultations

Cited by in corpus (4)

• The role of fragment shapes in the simulations of asteroids as gravitational aggregates
• Filament formation due to diffusive instabilities in dusty protoplanetary disks
• Hydrodynamics of granular gases of inelastic and rough hard disks or spheres. II. Stability analysis
• Thermal hysteresis and front propagation in dense planetary rings