Long-term collisional evolution of a dissipative particle disc perturbed by a giant-planet embryo

Université Paris 7 Denis Diderot, Service d'Astrophysique & CEA Saclay, France

Corresponding author: S. Charnoz, charnoz@discovery.saclay.cea.fr

Received: 17 April 2001
Accepted: 27 June 2001

Abstract

Recent works have shown that in a disc of planetesimals perturbed by a proto-Jupiter, the coupling between embryo's perturbations and inelastic collisions heats up the disc over several astronomical units in a few 10⁵ years. Using a simulation of a disc made of hard-spheres suffering inelastic collisions, we performed long-term numerical integrations to determine if the energy dissipated in collisions may finally damp eccentricities and inclinations induced by the proto-Jupiter. It is shown that the coupling between mean-motion resonances and collisions induces different damping regimes as a function of the protoplanet's mass. A 15 proto-Jupiter is more efficient than a 300 one to stir the disc over longer timescales, due to the non-emptying of isolated first order mean-motion resonances.