Let be the mass processed by catastrophic impacts in logarithmic bin . Steady mass conservation requires the same downward mass flux across every interior size threshold. A scale-independent fragment redistribution function makes the transfer kernel depend only on the number of logarithmic bin steps. Consequently a self-similar interior steady collisional cascade has , independent of size: a constant processed mass per bin supplies the constant flux, with the same kernel-dependent proportionality at every bin. This is the constant mass flux in a collisional cascade result, away from injection and removal cutoffs. Size-independent fragmentation does not eliminate boundary waves at the very ends of a finite distribution.
For equal-density planetesimals, body mass is proportional to and a fixed logarithmic bin contains a number proportional to . The mass per logarithmic size bin is therefore . With the given catastrophic planetesimal collision rate, gives
Constant mass flux in a collisional cascade sets the exponent to zero, yielding the strength-dependent steady collisional-cascade slope
The time to change an order-one fraction of a bin's mass is . Its collisional-cascade relaxation time is thus . The contemporaneous projectile population must be used when a different part of the distribution has already evolved.
For the primordial differential-number index , the collisional-cascade relaxation time is
It has asymptotic logarithmic slope in the strength regime and in the gravity regime. It increases monotonically: its logarithmic derivative is , ranging from to . In particular the minimum of the catastrophic disruption threshold at is not a minimum of the collision time. The strength-gravity disruption transition obeys
Small sizes start evolving first. Before , the whole distribution is nearly primordial. At intermediate times, a transition diameter with separates processed small sizes from mostly primordial larger sizes. The steady strength-regime index is , while the gravity-regime index is . Thus a plot of mass per logarithmic size bin has slopes and in the two evolved regimes, compared with the primordial slope . Once , both steady slopes appear below the remaining primordial tail. The transition moves to larger sizes, and the normalization eventually decays as the largest bodies are depleted. Sharp joined power laws are a schematic description; detailed kernels produce smooth transitions and possible waves.
Figure 1.
Primordial collision times and schematic size distributions at representative collisional ages
.
For the uniform depletion, the binary-collision evolution operator is quadratic in all bin masses: . Let be the undepleted trajectory and suppose . Differentiating verifies the exact scaling within this fixed-kernel collision model,
Immediately after depletion the shape is unchanged and the catastrophic planetesimal collision rates are reduced by . Further evolution therefore proceeds times more slowly on the original trajectory. The processed-to-primordial transition initially remains at , then advances on the stretched collision clock.
A collision-only model starting with the smaller initial normalization has trajectory . Matching the observed depleted distribution requires . Hence the collisional age after uniform dynamical depletion is
The lower observed normalization would make it appear that slow collisions had taken much longer to produce the existing break. Shape and normalization alone cannot determine without independent information about age, initial mass, or depletion history.
Finally, count all impacts exceeding the strength threshold , including impacts which also disperse the target. This is the source's inclusive rubblising convention; a bound-remnant rubblising collision alone would exclude the dispersing impacts. In the evolved gravity-regime projectile approximation, , so the given threshold-rate law gives the rubblising-to-dispersal collision-rate ratio
At the collisional front , the age is of order one catastrophic collision time. Thus the expected number of strength-shattering impacts has the large- scaling
This is the requested scaling. It is not an exact unit-coefficient identity from the stated assumptions: using the true minimum diameter gives . The actual cumulative number is , not automatically , and its coefficient depends on evolution of the projectile population. The estimate also assumes the relevant projectiles sample the gravity-regime slope; sampling the strength or primordial slope changes the exponent. The steady-cascade framework and evolving transitions are developed by Wyatt, Clarke and Booth.
For a common projectile power-law size distribution, the rate of impacts exceeding a threshold is proportional to . Taking the strength-only threshold rather than the full catastrophic disruption threshold gives the displayed ratio. Here the strength-shattering rate counts all impacts above , including dispersive ones; subtracting gives the bound-remnant-only rubblising collision rate. In a gravity-dominated cascade with , , and , it scales as . Using the actual strength-gravity disruption transition minimum diameter gives coefficient in the asymptotic rate ratio; treating that diameter as the equal-contribution crossover silently loses this factor.