Kavli Affiliate: Rainer Spurzem
| First 5 Authors: Kai Wu, M. B. N. Kouwenhoven, Francesco Flammini Dotti, Rainer Spurzem,
| Summary:
We present numerical simulations of planetary systems in star clusters with
different initial stellar densities, to investigate the impact of the density
on debris disc dynamics. We use LPS+ to combine N-body codes NBODY6++GPU and
REBOUND for simulations. We simulate debris discs with and without a
Jupiter-mass planet at 50 au, in star clusters with N = 1k – 64k stars. The
spatial range of the remaining planetary systems decreases with increasing N.
As cluster density increases, the planet’s influence range first increases and
then decreases. For debris particles escaping from planetary systems, the
probability of their direct ejection from the star cluster decreases as their
initial semi-major axis (a0) or the cluster density increases. The eccentricity
and inclination of surviving particles increase as cluster density increases.
The presence of a planet leads to lower eccentricities and inclinations of
surviving particles. The radial density distribution of the remaining discs
decays exponentially in sparse clusters. We derive a general expression of the
gravitational encounter rate. Our results are unable to directly explain the
scarcity of debris discs in star clusters. Nevertheless, given that many
planetary systems have multiple planets, the mechanism of the planet-cluster
combined gravitational influence on the disc remains appealing as a potential
explanation.
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