Rotation rate and velocity dispersion of planetary ring particles with size distribution II. Numerical simulation for gravitating particles

Abstract

We examine rotation rates of gravitating particles in low optical depth rings, on the basis of the evolution equation of particle rotational energy derived by Ohtsuki [Ohtsuki, K., 2006. Rotation rate and velocity dispersion of planetary ring particles with size distribution. I. Formulation and analytic calculation. Icarus 183, 373–383]. We obtain the rates of evolution of particle rotation rate and velocity dispersion, using three-body orbital integration that takes into account distribution of random velocities and rotation rates. The obtained stirring and friction rates are used to calculate the evolution of velocity dispersion and rotation rate for particles in one- and two-size component rings as well as those with a narrow size distribution, and agreement with N-body simulation is confirmed. Then, we perform calculations to examine equilibrium rotation rates and velocity dispersion of gravitating ring particles with a broad size distribution, from 1 cm up to 10 m. We find that small particles spin rapidly with 〈 ω 2 〉 1 / 2 / Ω ≳ 10 2 – 10 3 , where ω and Ω are the particle rotation rate and its orbital angular frequency, respectively, while the largest particles spin slowly, with 〈 ω 2 〉 1 / 2 / Ω ≲ 1 . The vertical scale height of rapidly rotating small particles is much larger than that of slowly rotating large particles. Thus, rotational states of ring particles have vertical heterogeneity, which should be taken into account in modeling thermal infrared emission from Saturn's rings.