Properties of planetesimals from streaming instability and alternative channels
Characterize the properties of planetesimals formed via the streaming instability and alternative formation mechanisms—including the initial mass function and binary inclination distribution—and assess the robustness and discriminative power of current predictions given limitations in collisional physics and resolution.
References
Open questions and problems that I would like to see resolved include, in no particular order: What are the properties of planetesimals that form from the streaming instability, and from alternative planetesimal formation channels? Important quantities such as the initial mass function, and the distribution of binary inclinations, have already been derived from simulations of the streaming instability. How robust these predictions are, and to what extent they discriminate between models, is not completely clear: few simulations include collisional physics or have the resolution to follow collapse to anything close to material density.