IR Kuiper Belt Constraints

Abstract

We compute the temperature and IR signal of particles of radius $a$ and albedo $\alpha$ at heliocentric distance $R$, taking into account the emissivity effect, and give an interpolating formula for the result. We compare with analyses of COBE DIRBE data by others (including recent detection of the cosmic IR background) for various values of heliocentric distance, $R$, particle radius, $a$, and particle albedo, $\alpha$. We then apply these results to a recently-developed picture of the Kuiper belt as a two-sector disk with a nearby, low-density sector (40<R<50-90 AU) and a more distant sector with a higher density. We consider the case in which passage through a molecular cloud essentially cleans the Solar System of dust. We apply a simple model of dust production by comet collisions and removal by the Poynting-Robertson effect to find limits on total and dust masses in the near and far sectors as a function of time since such a passage. Finally we compare Kuiper belt IR spectra for various parameter values.

34 pages, LaTeX, uses aasms4.sty, 11 PostScript figures not embedded. A number of substantive comments by a particularly thoughtful referee have been addressed

References in corpus (4)

• The COBE Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment Search for the Cosmic Infrared Background: I. Limits and Detections
• The COBE Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment Search for the Cosmic Infrared Background: II. Model of the Interplanetary Dust Cloud
• The COBE Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment Search for the Cosmic Infrared Background: IV. Cosmological Implications
• Accretion in the Early Kuiper Belt I. Coagulation and Velocity Evolution

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