FORMATION OF KUIPER BELT BINARIES BY GRAVITATIONAL COLLAPSE
Bibliographic record
Abstract
A large fraction of ∼100 km class low-inclination objects in the classical Kuiper Belt (KB) are binaries with comparable masses and a wide separation of components. A favored model for their formation is that they were captured during the coagulation growth of bodies in the early KB. However, recent studies have suggested that large, ≳100 km objects can rapidly form in the protoplanetary disks when swarms of locally concentrated solids collapse under their own gravity. Here, we examine the possibility that KB binaries formed during gravitational collapse when the excess of angular momentum prevented the agglomeration of available mass into a solitary object. We find that this new mechanism provides a robust path toward the formation of KB binaries with observed properties, and can explain wide systems such as 2001 QW 322 and multiples such as (47171) 1999 TC 36 . Notably, the gravitational collapse is capable of producing ∼100% binary fraction for a wide range of the swarm's initial angular momentum values. The binary components have similar masses (∼80% have a secondary-over-primary radius ratio >0.7) and their separation ranges from ∼1000 to ∼100,000 km. The binary orbits have eccentricities from e = 0 to ∼1, with the majority having e < 0.6. The binary orbit inclinations with respect to the initial angular momentum of the swarm range from i = 0 to ∼90°, with most cases having i < 50°. The total binary mass represents a characteristic fraction of the collapsing swarm's total initial mass, M tot , suggesting M tot equivalent to that of a radius ∼100–250 km compact object. Our binary formation mechanism also implies that the primary and secondary components in each binary pair should have identical bulk composition, which is consistent with the current photometric data. We discuss the applicability of our results to the Pluto–Charon, Orcus–Vanth, (617) Patroclus–Menoetius, and (90) Antiope binary systems.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".