Physically Modeling Kuiper Belt Contact Binaries
Creators: name: Leith, Thomas
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: astronomy
contact binary stars
Trans-Neptunian objects

description: Previous photometric surveys of Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) have identified the first confirmed contact binary in that region (2001 QG<sub>298</sub>), and given rise to estimates that between 10 and 20% of KBOs may be contact binaries - a significantly higher fraction than among Main Belt or NEAs. Thus far, definitive identification of trans-Neptunian contact binaries is only possible when their magnitude variability is greater than Δmag ≈ 1.0. However, continuing observations of 2001 QG<sub>298</sub> have demonstrated that such a high magnitude variability only occurs during a brief window in each orbital period, when the target's axis of rotation is perpendicular to the line of sight. In order to more comprehensively account for the effects of viewing geometry on contact binary lightcurves, we present a newly developed procedure for physically modeling and simulating observations of these objects. In doing so, we model contact binaries as Roche ellipsoids, treating them as rubble piles which uniformly fill gravitational equipotential surfaces. We then calculate the visible area of these model binaries over the course of a full rotation at a wide range of system geometries. Finally, we integrate over this area at each point in the binary's rotation, accounting for the possibility of both rocky and icy surface types, and fitting the resultant synthetic lightcurve to observational data. Repeating this process for a large number of contact binary dimensions, mass ratios, and geometries provides a streamlined process for characterizing contact binaries from their lightcurves, even when they exhibit Δmag &lt; 1.0. We intend to make this code publicly available for future studies of contact binaries throughout the Solar System.
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