title: Size Sorting on the Rubble-Pile Asteroid Itokawa.
abstract: Photographs of the asteroid Itokawa reveal unexpectedly strong size segregation between lowlands populated almost entirely by small pebbles and highlands consisting of larger boulders. We propose that this segregation may be caused by a simple and unexplored effect: pebbles accreting onto the asteroid rebound from boulders, but sink into pebbly regions. By number, overwhelmingly more particles on Itokawa are pebbles, and collisions involving these pebbles must unavoidably cause pebbly regions to grow. We carry out experiments and simulations that demonstrate that this mechanism of size sorting based on simple counting of grains produces strong lateral segregation that reliably obeys an analytic formula.
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA.
authors.forename: Troy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shinbrot
authors.affiliation: Continuum Physics Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Onna-son, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan.
authors.forename: Tapan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sabuwala
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA.
authors.forename: Theo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Siu
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vivar Lazo
authors.affiliation: Fluid Mechanics Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Onna-son, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan.
authors.forename: Pinaki
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chakraborty