
Dohnanyi's (1969) theory predicts that a collisional system such as the asteroidal population of the main belt should rapidly relax to a power-law stationary size distribution of the kind $N(m)\propto m^{-α}$, with $α$ very close to 11/6, provided all the collisional response parameters are independent on size. The actual asteroid belt distribution at observable sizes, instead, does not exhibit such a simple fractal size distribution. We investigate in this work the possibility that the corresponding cumulative distribution may be instead fairly fitted by multifractal distributions. This multifractal behavior, in contrast with the Dohnany fractal distribution, is related to the release of his hypothesis of self-similarity.
Tex, 14 pages, 1 table, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in Icarus
Astrophysics (astro-ph), FOS: Physical sciences, Astrophysics
Astrophysics (astro-ph), FOS: Physical sciences, Astrophysics
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 4 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Average | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Average | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Average |
