K. Tsiganis1, H. Varvoglis1 and A. Anastasiadis2 1
Section of Astrophysics, Astronomy \& Mechanics - University of Thessaloniki, Greece 2 Institute for Space Applications and Remote Sensing, National
Observatory of Athens - Greece
We investigate the applicability of a kinetic description for asteroidal
transport, through a single diffusion equation of the Fokker-Planck
type. This approach is based on the assumption that a suitably calculated
``local" diffusion coefficient can be used to describe the evolution of the
asteroids' elements, even in places of the belt in which chaotic motion is
not dominant. We calculate numerically the diffusion coefficient in different
parts of the outer belt (beyond the 2:1 resonance), in the framework of the
2-D elliptic restricted three-body (and four-body) problem(s). The
corresponding boundary-value problem (assuming that Jupiter-crossing
orbits are ejected from the Solar system) is solved. The escape statistics
resulting from this formalism are compared to those coming from numerical
integration.