Statistical Theory of Asteroid Escape Rates
Jaffé, C., S. D. Ross, M. W. Lo,
J. E. Marsden, D. Farrelly and T. Uzer
Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 011101-1.
Abstract:
Transition states in phase space are identified and shown to
regulate the rate of escape of asteroids temporarily captured in
circumplanetary orbits. The transition states, similar to those
occurring in chemical reaction dynamics, are then used to develop a
statistical semi-analytical theory for the rate of escape of
asteroids temporarily captured by Mars. Theory and numerical
simulations are found to agree to better than 1%. These calculations
suggest that further development of transition state theory in
celestial mechanics, as an alternative to large-scale numerical
simulations, will be a fruitful approach to mass transport
calculations.