  The absence of planets interior to Mercury continues to puzzle terrestrial
planet formation models, particularly when contrasted with the relatively high
derived occurrence rates of short-period planets around Sun-like stars. Recent
work proposed that the majority of systems hosting hot super-Earths attain
their orbital architectures through an epoch of dynamical instability after
forming in quasi-stable, tightly packed configurations. Isotopic evidence seems
to suggest that the formation of objects in the super-Earth mass regime is
unlikely to have occurred in the solar system as the terrestrial-forming disk
is thought to have been significantly mass-deprived starting around 2 Myr after
CAI; a consequence of either Jupiter's growth or an intrinsic disk feature.
Nevertheless, terrestrial planet formation models and high-resolution
investigations of planetesimal dynamics in the gas disk phase occasionally find
that quasi-stable proto-planets with masses comparable to that of Mars emerge
in the vicinity of Mercury's modern orbit. In this paper, we investigate
whether it is possible for a primordial configuration of such objects to be
cataclysmically destroyed in a manner that leaves Mercury behind as the sole
survivor without disturbing the other terrestrial worlds. We use numerical
simulations to show that this scenario is plausible. In many cases, the
surviving Mercury analog experiences a series of erosive impacts; thereby
boosting its Fe/Si ratio. A caveat of our proposed genesis scenario for Mercury
is that Venus typically experiences at least one late giant impact.
