Let the belt contain bodies. Its total mass fixes
For equal mass density, an impactor of diameter supplies specific impact energy
Thus catastrophic disruption requires , where
The impactor number density per diameter is . Neglecting gravitational focusing, the geometric collision cross-section is , so the exact catastrophic planetesimal collision rate in this model is
Equivalently, with ,
If , the steep distribution makes impactors just above dominate and their collision cross-section is approximately . Hence
This approximation also assumes a common and size-independent catastrophic disruption threshold .
For equal mass density, the specific impact energy is
Thus the smallest catastrophic impactor has , where
Integrating the collision rate gives
For , the last term is the dominant lower-limit contribution, so the catastrophic planetesimal collision rate is
Cratering impactors satisfy . For , they also satisfy , so . The fractional mass-loss rate is then
Using the catastrophic planetesimal collision rate found above,