THE STABILITY OF PLANETS IN THE ALPHA-CENTAURI SYSTEM

This paper investigates the long-term orbital stability of small bodie s near the central binary of the Alpha Centauri system. Test particles on circular orbits are integrated in the field of this binary for 32 000 binary periods or approximately 2.5 Myr. In the region exterior to the binary, particles with semimajor axes less than roughly three tim es the binary's semimajor axis ab are unstable. Inside the binary, par ticles are unstable if further than 4 AU from either star, with stabil ity closer in a strong function of inclination on the time scale of th ese integrations: orbits inclined near 90 degrees are unstable in as c lose as 0.23 AU from either star. We also present charts of the predic ted stable regions as projected against the plane of the sky to aid di rect imaging searches. (C) 1997 American Astronomical Society.