What term describes the chaotic state where a few massive protoplanets dominate available material in a disk region?
Answer
Oligarchic growth
The dynamic environment shared by multiple, similarly massive protoplanets vying for material in their orbital neighborhood is specifically termed oligarchic growth. This stage is characterized by intense gravitational competition where a few dominant entities in a specific region of the disk begin to dictate the fate of the material present. This competition leads to highly unstable orbits, often resulting in gravitational scattering or catastrophic mergers between the large bodies vying for dominance within that zone before the protoplanetary disk dissipates.
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