Misaligned Circumbinary Disks as Efficient Progenitors of Interstellar Asteroids

Abstract

Gaseous circumbinary disks (CBDs) that are highly inclined to the binary orbit are commonly observed in nature. These disks harbor particles that can reach large mutual inclinations as a result of nodal precession once the gas disk has dissipated. With n-body simulations that include fragmentation we demonstrate that misaligned disks of particles can be efficient progenitors of interstellar asteroids (ISAs). Collisions that take place between particles with large mutual inclinations have large impact velocities, which can result in mass ejection, with a wide range of fragment sizes and ejection velocities. We explore the binary parameters for which the majority of the terrestrial planet-forming material is ejected rather than accreted into planets. The misalignment required to eject significant material decreases with binary eccentricity. If the distribution of binary eccentricity is uniform and the initial particle CBD orientation relative to the binary orbit is isotropic, about 59% of binaries are more likely to eject the majority of their CBD terrestrial planet disk mass through high-velocity body–body collisions than to retain this material and build terrestrial planets. However, binary–disk interactions during the gas disk phase with nonzero disk viscosity will reduce this fraction. The composition, small size, highly elongated shape, and tumbling motion of ‘Oumuamua are consistent with ISAs generated by misaligned CBDs.