Abstract

MODELLING PLANETESIMAL INTERACTIONS DURING MID-STAGE EVOLUTION OF THE PORTOPLANETARY CLOUD

by Matthew J. Murdock



M.S. Thesis in Physics
Miami University
August 1995






A model is presented that simulates the mid--stage formation of a solar system of planets. In this stage, the solar nebular cloud is composed of planetesimals that are initially solid bodies 1-10 km in size. These planetesimals interact gravitationally and coalesce to form protoplanets that are lunar size bodies with masses on the the order of 10**25 g. The theoretical model used in this study consists of treating the planetesimal cloud using the statistical techniques of kinetic theory where the planetesimals take on the role of gas molecules. The computational algorithm incorporates this kinetic approach to model the velocity evolution of the planetesimals and the two--body approximation to account for mass growth. The results of several simulations run in the vicinity of 1 A.U. are reported and discussed. These primarily attempt to duplicate the work of previous authors to verify the algorithm. For most of these, qualitative agreement is achieved; however, the case of runaway growth, where one body separates from the distribution and rapidly acquires most of the mass, is not realized. This presents the possibility that this technique as is widely utilized is incapable of generating runaway growth of a planetary embryo.


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