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P. Thebault (Observatoire de Paris), H. Scholl (Observatoire de Nice), F. Marzari (University of Padova)
We investigate under which conditions planetesimal accretion is inhibited around the primary star of a binary system as a result of the companion's perturbations. The main criteria is here if these perturbations are strong enough to lead to orbital crossing between neighbouring planetesimals, and thus high encounter velocities which could halt accretion, before runaway (and possibly oligarchic) growth grows bodies large enough to sustain this velocity increase. We use deterministic numerical simulations to derive empirical expressions giving the position of the orbital crossing region as a function of time and companion star orbital parameters. We find that values of encounter velocities after orbital crossing can prevent accretion of objects up to a critical "safe" size of the order of 100km. Constraints on planetesimal accretion inhibition are then derived by interpreting these results within the frame of the runaway accretion scenario.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #3
© 2004. The American Astronomical Soceity.