Velocities of Free Floaters in a Sea of Stars

Abstract

We investigate the velocity evolution of free-floating planets and interstellar objects (``free floaters'') through gravitational scatterings by field stars (with the stellar mass $m$ much larger than the mass of the floater, $m_p$). We show that the equilibrium velocity -- where dynamical friction balances stochastic acceleration -- is given by $\sigma \sqrt{2\ln (m/m_p)}$ (where $\sigma$ is the velocity disperson of the field stars), diverging from the standard energy equipartition scaling. While the timescale to reach this equilibrium is prohibitively long, we find that slow floaters ($v\lesssim \sigma$) undergo mass-independent acceleration, doubling their velocities within a few relaxation times. Consequently, free floaters initially following the Maxwellian distribution of their parent stars develop distinctly non-Maxwellian velocity distributions on a relaxation timescale. Since the relaxation time of the Galactic disk is longer than the age, our results suggest that the kinematics of low-mass free floaters in the disk may preserve signatures of their parent stars and ejection history.

Submitted to ApJ, changed format to double column