Simulations of the Solar System's Early Dynamical Evolution with a Self-Gravitating Planetesimal Disk

Abstract

Over the course of last decade, the Nice model has dramatically changed our view of the solar system's formation and early evolution. Within the context of this model, a transient period of planet-planet scattering is triggered by gravitational interactions between the giant planets and a massive primordial planetesimal disk, leading to a successful reproduction of the solar system's present-day architecture. In typical realizations of the Nice model, self-gravity of the planetesimal disk is routinely neglected, as it poses a computational bottleneck to the calculations. Recent analyses have shown, however, that a self-gravitating disk can exhibit behavior that is dynamically distinct, and this disparity may have significant implications for the solar system's evolutionary path. In this work, we explore this discrepancy utilizing a large suite of Nice odel simulations with and without a self-gravitating planetesimal disk, taking advantage of the inherently parallel nature of graphic processing units. Our simulations demonstrate that self-consistent modeling of particle interactions does not lead to significantly different final planetary orbits from those obtained within conventional simulations. Moreover, self-gravitating calculations show similar planetesimal evolution to non-self-gravitating numerical experiments after dynamical instability is triggered, suggesting that the orbital clustering observed in the distant Kuiper belt is unlikely to have a self-gravitational origin.

5 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (8)

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• The Planet Nine Hypothesis
• Not a simple relationship between Neptune's migration speed and Kuiper belt inclination excitation
• Instabilities in the Early Solar System due to a Self-gravitating Disk
• On the Dynamics of the Inclination Instability
• Giant Planet Influence on the Collective Gravity of a Primordial Scattered Disk
• Dynamical evolution of a self-gravitating planetesimal disk in the distant trans-Neptunian region
• Collisional Growth Within the Solar System's Primordial Planetesimal Disk and the Timing of the Giant Planet Instability
• On the oligarchic growth in a fully interacting system