 Inspiral time under Poynting–Robertson drag

ID: inspiral-time-under-poynting-robertson-drag

C

and

A = βG M_{⋆} / c

, the orbit-averaged time to the point-star limit is

t_{PR} = \frac{2 C ^{2}}{5 A} \int_{0}^{e_{0}} \frac{u ^{3/5}}{( 1 - u ^{2} ) ^{3/2}} d u .

This tends to

a_{0}^{2} / (4 A)

4 Q_{0}^{1/2} q_{0}^{3/2} / (5 A)

for a highly eccentric orbit. Stellar radius, sublimation, collisions, and failure of orbital averaging can terminate the evolution earlier.

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