M. E. Bailey’s scientific contributions

The mean energy-transfer rate (METR) from point masses to Oort-cloud comets is estimated theoretically and shown to be dependent on the minimum impact parameter b(min). An ensemble-averaged METR is obtained by averaging METR over the probability distribution of b(min) values and compared with conventional METRs based on a single b(min) value. It is found that ensemble-averaged METRs are similar to conventional METRs for high-number-density perturbers such as stars, but are an order of magnitude larger for low-space-density objects such as giant molecular clouds or black holes.