A mechanism of formation for the Kirkwood gaps

In this paper an analytical model describing the effect of a displacement of the Jovian resonances in the asteroid belt is analyzed. It is found that small displacement can transform a truncated uniform density distribution of asteroids into a gap. As a possible explanation for the displacement, the effect of the removal of an accretion disk in the early stage of the solar system is investigated. It is found that removal of a disk containing a few percent of the solar mass between the orbit of the asteroids and the orbit of Jupiter is sufficient to account for the observed Hecuba gap.