THE ABSOLUTE MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTION OF KUIPER BELT OBJECTS

By W. Fraser, M. Brown, A. Morbidelli, A. Parker, K. Batygin. 2014

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Here we measure the absolute magnitude distributions (H-distribution) of the dynamically excited and quiescent (hot and cold) Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs), and test if they share the same H-distribution as the Jupiter Trojans. From a compilation of all useable ecliptic surveys, we find that the KBO H-distributions are well described by broken power laws. The cold population has a bright-end slope, , and break magnitude, (r′-band). The hot population has a shallower bright-end slope of, , and break magnitude . Both populations share similar faint-end slopes of α2 ∼ 0.2. We estimate the masses of the hot and cold populations are ∼0.01 and ∼3 × 10−4 M⊕. The broken power-law fit to the Trojan H-distribution has α1 = 1.0 ± 0.2, α2 = 0.36 ± 0.01, and HB = 8.3. The Kolmogorov–Smirnov test reveals that the probability that the Trojans and cold KBOs share the same parent H-distribution is less than 1 in 1000. When the bimodal albedo distribution of the hot objects is accounted for, there is no evidence that the H-distributions of the Trojans and hot KBOs differ. Our findings are in agreement with the predictions of the Nice model in terms of both mass and H-distribution of the hot and Trojan populations. Wide-field survey data suggest that the brightest few hot objects, with , do not fall on the steep power-law slope of fainter hot objects. Under the standard hierarchical model of planetesimal formation, it is difficult to account for the similar break diameters of the hot and cold populations given the low mass of the cold belt.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5720157f594503f7bc33f63671f4972dacdea57c

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Citations in the corpus

Origin and Evolution of Short-period Comets (2017, background): “Specifically, Fraser et al. (2014) estimated that the current CC population at 42-47 au represents only ∼0.0003 Earth masses.”
The primordial nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (2015, methodology): “We define “small TNOs” as 40 < D ≤ 200 km, where the upper limit roughly coincides with the D = 100–190 km interval where the cumulative size distribution for dynamically hot TNOs changes slope (Fraser et al. 2014).”
EVIDENCE FOR SLOW MIGRATION OF NEPTUNE FROM THE INCLINATION DISTRIBUTION OF KUIPER BELT OBJECTS (2015, methodology): “Fraser et al. (2014) found that a = 0.91 , a = 0.22 , and =H 8B for the HCs.”
THE MASS AND SIZE DISTRIBUTION OF PLANETESIMALS FORMED BY THE STREAMING INSTABILITY. I. THE ROLE OF SELF-GRAVITY (2015, methodology): “Later corrections to this work (Fraser et al. 2014) that removed the model dependence associated with uncertainties in the distance to KBOs found even steeper values of q = 8.5 (cold population) and q = 5.4 (hot population).”
How to form planetesimals from mm-sized chondrules and chondrule aggregates (2015, background): “A similar bump is inferred for the trans-Neptunian population (Fraser & Kavelaars 2009; Sheppard & Trujillo 2010; Shankman et al. 2013; Fraser et al. 2014).”