Related papers: Extraterrestrial sink dynamics in granular matter
An intermediate step to modelling behaviour of active matter is understanding interactions of active objects (AOs) with inanimate matter, which often lead to a range of rich behaviour. We present a range of simulations of the interaction of…
Much of the Earth and many surfaces of extraterrestrial bodies are composed of in-cohesive particle matter. Locomoting on granular terrain is challenging for common robotic devices, either wheeled or legged. In this work, we discover a…
Modelling gravity is a fundamental problem that must be tackled in N-body simulations of stellar systems, and satisfactory solutions require a deep understanding of the dynamical effects of softening. In a previous paper (Romeo 1997), we…
Habitability is usually defined as the requirement for a terrestrial planet's atmosphere to sustain liquid water. This definition can be complemented by the dynamical requirement that other planets in the system do not gravitationally…
We investigate the down-hill creep of a layer of granular material on a slope caused by an oscillatory variation of the size of the particles. The material is modeled as an athermal two dimensional polydisperse system of soft disks under…
Faults are complex systems embedded in an evolving medium fractured by seismic ruptures. This off-fault damage zone is shown to be thermo-hydro-mechano-chemically coupled to the main fault plane by a growing number of studies. Yet,…
In granular systems, thermal cycling causes compaction, creep, penetration of dense objects, and ratcheting of grains against each other. On asteroid surfaces, thermal cycling is high amplitude and can happen billions of times in a few…
Wind erosion is a destructive mechanism that completely dissolves a weakly bound object like a planetesimal into its constituent particles, if the velocity relative to the ambient gas and the local gas pressure are sufficiently high. In…
Projectile impact into a light granular material composed of expanded polypropylene (EPP) particles is investigated systematically with various impact velocities. Experimentally, the trajectory of an intruder moving inside the granular…
The dynamical behavior of spacecraft around asteroids is a key element in design of such missions. An asteroid's irregular shape, non-spherical mass distribution and its rotational sate make the dynamics of spacecraft quite complex. This…
We describe gravitational stirring models of planetary debris disks using a new multi-annulus planetesimal evolution code. The current code includes gravitational stirring and dynamical friction; future studies will include coagulation,…
Planetary systems can evolve dynamically even after the planets themselves have fully formed, and there is circumstantial evidence that most planetary systems become unstable after the disappearance of the gaseous protoplanetary disk.…
We present a numerical simulation of a granular material using hydrodynamic equations. We show that, in the absence of external forces, such a system phase-separates into high density and low density regions. We show that this separation is…
Galaxy dynamics probes weak gravity at accelerations below the de Sitter scale of acceleration $a_{dS}=cH$, where $c$ is the velocity of light and $H$ is the Hubble parameter. Low and high redshift galaxies hereby offer a novel probe of…
Asteroid material is detected in white dwarfs (WDs) as atmospheric pollution by metals, in the form of gas/dust discs, or in photometric transits. Within the current paradigm, minor bodies need to be scattered, most likely by planets, into…
Numerical experiments are the primary method of studying the evolution of circumbinary disks due to the strong nonlinearities involved. Many circumbinary simulations also require the use of numerical mass sinks: source terms which prevent…
We examine ejecta generated by ultra low velocity impacts under asteroid conditions. In an environment of precisely controlled milligravity and under vacuum, impacts with velocities in the range of centimeters/second are performed with…
Impact of a solid object onto a small-body surface can be modeled by the solid impact onto a hierarchically structured granular target. Impact drag force model for the hierarchically structured granular target is developed based on the…
The hydrodynamic interactions between a sedimenting microswimmer and a solid wall have ubiquitous biological and technological applications. A plethora of gravity-induced swimming dynamics near a planar no-slip wall provides a platform for…
Soil creeps imperceptibly downhill, but also fails catastrophically to create landslides. Despite the importance of these processes as hazards and in sculpting landscapes, there is no agreed upon model that captures the full range of…