Simulations of Bias Effects in Kuiper Belt Surveys

Abstract.

Maximum likelihood methods are used to place limits on the allowed parameters of the Kuiper Belt. If an as yet unseen primordial Kuiper Belt exists of density 100 times higher than the known classical Kuiper Belt, it must be further than 90 AU from the Sun. Observational bias effects prevent statistically significant constraints to be placed on the size of objects such as 1996TL₆₆, which reside in the Scattered Kuiper Belt. Bias also affects the measured maximum radial extent of the classical non-resonant Kuiper Belt.