Threshold velocity for the collisional growth of porous dust aggregates consisting of cohesive frictionless spheres

Abstract

Understanding the collisional outcomes of dust aggregates and their dependence on the material properties of the constituting particles is of great importance for understanding planet formation. Recent numerical simulations have revealed that interparticle tangential friction plays a crucial role in energy dissipation during collisions between porous dust aggregates, but the importance of friction for the collisional growth of dust aggregates remains poorly understood. Here we demonstrate the effects of interparticle tangential friction on the collisional growth of dust aggregates. We performed numerical simulations of collisions between equal-mass porous dust aggregates consisting of cohesive and frictionless spheres. We changed the collision velocity and impact angle systematically and calculated the collisional growth efficiency as a function of the collision velocity. We found that the threshold velocity for collisional growth decreases when dust aggregates are made of frictionless spheres compared to frictional spheres. Our results highlight the importance of tangential interactions for the collisional behavior of dust aggregates and indicate that the predictive equation for the threshold velocity should be reconstructed.