Disruption limits around triaxial bodies and implications for ring-bearing minor bodies

Abstract

The classical Roche limit is often used as a boundary between ring-dominated and satellite-dominated regions, although it is derived for a self-gravitating fluid satellite orbiting a spherical primary. This assumption is poorly suited to ring-bearing minor bodies, which are often triaxial. Here, we compute the equilibrium figures and disruption limits of inviscid fluid satellites orbiting triaxial primaries, modelling their gravity fields through J2 and C22. The primary's oblateness and equatorial asymmetry shifts the disruption limit outward relative to the classical Roche limit, with C22 dominating the correction at sufficiently high values, which require highly oblate primaries. The disruption location also depends on the primary's orientation, defining a radial disruption region rather than a single limit in non-double-synchronous systems. Increasing orbital inclination shifts the limit inward, significantly so only at high inclinations. Symbolic regression provides an empirical expression for the disruption limit around triaxial primaries, which we apply to ring-bearing minor bodies. The correction is most relevant for Haumea and Chariklo, whereas the rings of Chiron and Quaoar located beyond the classical Roche limit remain outside the disruption region for realistic particle densities. This indicates that treating the disruption limit as a strict boundary between ring-dominated and satellite-dominated regions is an oversimplification, since the long-term survival of a ring also depends on collisional evolution, particle properties, and resonant confinement driven by the primary's non-axisymmetric gravity field.

Ellipsoidal Modeling Framework for TNOs: the triaxial shape of (50000) Quaoar and its implications for Weywot and the dynamical environment
Giuliano Margoti, Felipe Braga Ribas, Eros Gradovski +4
arXiv21 Oct 2026PreprintCC BY 4.0Full textPlanetary science & exoplanetsarXiv
High-energy neutrinos from shocked circumnuclear material around optically-bright and infrared-only tidal disruption events
Mainak Mukhopadhyay, Shigeo S. Kimura, Tatsuya Matsumoto
arXiv1 Oct 2026PreprintCC BY 4.0Full textHigh-energy astrophysics High-energy & particle physicsarXiv
HLX-1 as a Repeating Partial Tidal Disruption Event around an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole
Fangyuan Yu, Andrew Mummery, Muryel Guolo
arXiv30 Sep 2026PreprintCC BY 4.0Full textHigh-energy astrophysicsarXiv
Electromagnetic alignment and jet precession around supermassive black holes: Quasi-periodic oscillations in tidal disruption events
Pau Amaro-Seoane, Leif Lui, Alejandro Torres-Orjuela +1
arXiv4 Sep 2026PreprintCC BY 4.0Full textHigh-energy astrophysics Gravitation & general relativityarXiv
Rates of tidal disruption events from constrained cosmological simulations of the local Universe: population properties and implications for transient surveys
Julian S Sommer, Ildar Khabibullin, Klaus Dolag +4
HAL1 Sep 2026PreprintLicence not statedGeneral astronomy General physicsHAL

Cite

BibTeX RIS

BibTeX

@misc{madeira2026disruption,
  title = {{Disruption limits around triaxial bodies and implications for ring-bearing minor bodies}},
  author = {Gustavo Madeira and T. F. L. L. Pinheiro},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.04800},
  eprint = {2611.04800},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.04800},
  note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}

RIS

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Disruption limits around triaxial bodies and implications for ring-bearing minor bodies
AU  - Gustavo Madeira
AU  - T. F. L. L. Pinheiro
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/11/03
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.04800
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.04800
AB  - The classical Roche limit is often used as a boundary between ring-dominated and satellite-dominated regions, although it is derived for a self-gravitating fluid satellite orbiting a spherical primary. This assumption is poorly suited to ring-bearing minor bodies, which are often triaxial. Here, we compute the equilibrium figures and disruption limits of inviscid fluid satellites orbiting triaxial primaries, modelling their gravity fields through J2 and C22. The primary's oblateness and equatorial asymmetry shifts the disruption limit outward relative to the classical Roche limit, with C22 dominating the correction at sufficiently high values, which require highly oblate primaries. The disruption location also depends on the primary's orientation, defining a radial disruption region rather than a single limit in non-double-synchronous systems. Increasing orbital inclination shifts the limit inward, significantly so only at high inclinations. Symbolic regression provides an empirical expression for the disruption limit around triaxial primaries, which we apply to ring-bearing minor bodies. The correction is most relevant for Haumea and Chariklo, whereas the rings of Chiron and Quaoar located beyond the classical Roche limit remain outside the disruption region for realistic particle densities. This indicates that treating the disruption limit as a strict boundary between ring-dominated and satellite-dominated regions is an oversimplification, since the long-term survival of a ring also depends on collisional evolution, particle properties, and resonant confinement driven by the primary's non-axisymmetric gravity field.
ER  -

Abstract

Related

Cite