Isolating the extreme debris disk signature - explorations of eccentric extreme debris disks formed by giant impacts


 In this work we used N-body simulations and a radiative transfer package to model the evolution of eccentric debris disks produced by giant impacts between planetary embryos. This included how the morphology and infrared emission of these disks varied with embryo eccentricity and collision true anomaly. We found that eccentric disks inherit the eccentric properties of the centre of mass orbit of the two colliding embryos. However, the orientation of the collision with the respect to this orbit plays a key role in determining how closely the disk material resembles the centre of mass orbit. Additionally, we found that increased eccentricity acted to suppress the formation of certain short-term variations in the disk emission depending on the collision position. These short-term variations have been associated with an observational phenomenon called extreme debris disks. Short-term variability has been suggested as a potential signature for giant impacts.