The DECam Ecliptic Exploration Project (DEEP). V. The Absolute Magnitude Distribution of the Cold Classical Kuiper Belt

Kevin J. Napier; Hsing Wen Lin; David W. Gerdes; Fred C. Adams; Anna M. Simpson; Matthew W. Porter; Katherine G. Weber; Larissa Markwardt; Gabriel Gowman; Hayden Smotherman; Pedro H. Bernardinelli; Mario Jurić; Andrew J. Connolly; J. Bryce Kalmbach; Stephen K. N. Portillo; David E. Trilling; Ryder Strauss; William J. Oldroyd; Chadwick A. Trujillo; Colin Orion Chandler; Matthew J. Holman; Hilke E. Schlichting; Andrew McNeill

doi:10.3847/PSJ/ad1528

The Planetary Science Journal (Jan 2024)

The DECam Ecliptic Exploration Project (DEEP). V. The Absolute Magnitude Distribution of the Cold Classical Kuiper Belt

Kevin J. Napier,
Hsing Wen Lin,
David W. Gerdes,
Fred C. Adams,
Anna M. Simpson,
Matthew W. Porter,
Katherine G. Weber,
Larissa Markwardt,
Gabriel Gowman,
Hayden Smotherman,
Pedro H. Bernardinelli,
Mario Jurić,
Andrew J. Connolly,
J. Bryce Kalmbach,
Stephen K. N. Portillo,
David E. Trilling,
Ryder Strauss,
William J. Oldroyd,
Chadwick A. Trujillo,
Colin Orion Chandler,
Matthew J. Holman,
Hilke E. Schlichting,
Andrew McNeill

Affiliations

Kevin J. Napier: ORCiD; Department of Physics, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA ; [email protected]
Hsing Wen Lin: ORCiD; Department of Physics, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA ; [email protected]
David W. Gerdes: ORCiD; Department of Physics, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA ; [email protected]; Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Fred C. Adams: ORCiD; Department of Physics, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA ; [email protected]; Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Anna M. Simpson: ORCiD; Department of Physics, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA ; [email protected]; Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Matthew W. Porter: ORCiD; Department of Physics, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA ; [email protected]
Katherine G. Weber: ORCiD; Department of Learning Health Sciences, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Larissa Markwardt: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Gabriel Gowman: ORCiD; Department of Physics, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA ; [email protected]; Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Hayden Smotherman: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , Seattle, WA 98195, USA
Pedro H. Bernardinelli: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , Seattle, WA 98195, USA
Mario Jurić: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , Seattle, WA 98195, USA
Andrew J. Connolly: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , Seattle, WA 98195, USA
J. Bryce Kalmbach: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , Seattle, WA 98195, USA
Stephen K. N. Portillo: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , Seattle, WA 98195, USA
David E. Trilling: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Northern Arizona University , Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
Ryder Strauss: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Northern Arizona University , Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
William J. Oldroyd: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Northern Arizona University , Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
Chadwick A. Trujillo: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Northern Arizona University , Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
Colin Orion Chandler: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , Seattle, WA 98195, USA; Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Northern Arizona University , Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA; LSST Interdisciplinary Network for Collaboration and Computing , Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Matthew J. Holman: ORCiD; Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Hilke E. Schlichting: ORCiD; Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, The University of California Los Angeles , 595 Charles E. Young Drive East, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Andrew McNeill: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Northern Arizona University , P.O. Box 6010, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA; Department of Physics, Lehigh University , 16 Memorial Drive East, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/ad1528
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 5, no. 2
p. 50

Abstract

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The DECam Ecliptic Exploration Project (DEEP) is a deep survey of the trans-Neptunian solar system being carried out on the 4 m Blanco telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam). By using a shift-and-stack technique to achieve a mean limiting magnitude of r ∼ 26.2, DEEP achieves an unprecedented combination of survey area and depth, enabling quantitative leaps forward in our understanding of the Kuiper Belt populations. This work reports results from an analysis of 20, 3 deg ^2 DECam fields along the invariable plane. We characterize the efficiency and false-positive rates for our moving-object detection pipeline, and use this information to construct a Bayesian signal probability for each detected source. This procedure allows us to treat all of our Kuiper Belt object (KBO) detections statistically, simultaneously accounting for efficiency and false positives. We detect approximately 2300 candidate sources with KBO-like motion with signal-to-noise ratios > 6.5. We use a subset of these objects to compute the luminosity function of the Kuiper Belt as a whole, as well as the cold classical (CC) population. We also investigate the absolute magnitude ( H ) distribution of the CCs, and find consistency with both an exponentially tapered power law, which is predicted by streaming instability models of planetesimal formation, and a rolling power law. Finally, we provide an updated mass estimate for the CC Kuiper Belt of ${M}_{{CC}}({H}_{r}\lt 12)\,=\,{0.0017}_{-0.0004}^{+0.0010}{M}_{\oplus }$ , assuming albedo p = 0.15 and density ρ = 1 g cm ^−3 .

Published in The Planetary Science Journal

ISSN: 2632-3338 (Online)
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Science: Astronomy
Website: https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/2632-3338

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