Collisional Grooming of Debris Disks

Abstract

Debris disk images show clumps, rings, warps, and other structures, many of which have been interpreted as perturbations from hidden planets. But so far, no models of these structures have properly accounted for collisions between dust grains. We have developed new steady-state 3D models of debris disks that self-consistently incorporate grain-grain collisions. We summarize our algorithm and use it to illustrate how collisions interact with resonant trapping in the presence of a planet.

5 pages, Conference proceedings, "Exoplanets and Disks: Their Formation and Diversity" Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, 9-12 March 2009. Tomonori Usuda, Motohide Tamura, Miki Ishii, eds