Explain incomplete attainment of the minimum-energy configuration

Establish whether the failure of simulated planetary pairs to attain the predicted minimum-energy configuration above the critical pair mass results from mergers becoming rare after embryos reach sufficient mass and consequently causing inefficient energy dissipation.

Background

The simulations contain many nearly equal-mass planet pairs whose total mass exceeds the analytical critical threshold, even though the energy-minimization model predicts that one member should undergo runaway growth. Thus, the simulated systems do not consistently reach the theoretically predicted minimum-energy state.

The authors attribute this mismatch to a hypothesized reduction in merger frequency once embryos become sufficiently massive, which would limit further energy dissipation. The proposed explanation remains unresolved in the stated analysis.