Title: Simulations of the Solar System's Early Dynamical Evolution with a Self-Gravitating Planetesimal Disk,
Abstract: Over the course of last decade, the Nice model has dramatically changed our
view of the solar system's formation and early evolution. Within the context of
this model, a transient period of planet-planet scattering is triggered by
gravitational interactions between the giant planets and a massive primordial
planetesimal disk, leading to a successful reproduction of the solar system's
present-day architecture. In typical realizations of the Nice model,
self-gravity of the planetesimal disk is routinely neglected, as it poses a
computational bottleneck to the calculations. Recent analyses have shown,
however, that a self-gravitating disk can exhibit behavior that is dynamically
distinct, and this disparity may have significant implications for the solar
system's evolutionary path. In this work, we explore this discrepancy utilizing
a large suite of Nice odel simulations with and without a self-gravitating
planetesimal disk, taking advantage of the inherently parallel nature of
graphic processing units. Our simulations demonstrate that self-consistent
modeling of particle interactions does not lead to significantly different
final planetary orbits from those obtained within conventional simulations.
Moreover, self-gravitating calculations show similar planetesimal evolution to
non-self-gravitating numerical experiments after dynamical instability is
triggered, suggesting that the orbital clustering observed in the distant
Kuiper belt is unlikely to have a self-gravitational origin.