  The fact that the Centaurs are the primary source of the Short Period Comets
is well established. However, the origin of the Centaurs themselves is still
under some debate, with a variety of different source reservoirs being proposed
in the last decade. In this work, we suggest that the Neptune Trojans (together
with the Jovian Trojans) could represent an additional significant source of
Centaurs. Using dynamical simulations of the first Neptune Trojan discovered
(2001 QR322), together with integrations following the evolution of clouds of
theoretical Neptune Trojans obtained during simulations of planetary migration,
we show that the Neptune Trojan population contains a great number of objects
which are unstable on both Myr and Gyr timescales. Using individual examples,
we show how objects that leave the Neptunian Trojan cloud evolve onto orbits
indistinguishable from those of the known Centaurs, before providing a range of
estimates of the flux from this region to the Centaur population. With only
moderate assumptions, it is shown that the Trojans can contribute a significant
proportion of the Centaur population, and may even be the dominant source
reservoir. This result is supported by past work on the colours of the Trojans
and the Centaurs, but it will take future observations to determine the full
scale of the contribution of the escaped Trojans to the Centaur population.

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics