Resonant capture by inward-migrating planets

Citation
Qj. Yu et S. Tremaine, Resonant capture by inward-migrating planets, ASTRONOM J, 121(3), 2001, pp. 1736-1740
Citations number
9
Categorie Soggetti
Space Sciences
Journal title
ASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL
ISSN journal
00046256 → ACNP
Volume
121
Issue
3
Year of publication
2001
Pages
1736 - 1740
Database
ISI
SICI code
0004-6256(200103)121:3<1736:RCBIP>2.0.ZU;2-2
Abstract
We investigate resonant capture of small bodies by planets that migrate inw ard, using analytic arguments and three-body integrations. If the orbits of the planet and the small body are initially circular and coplanar, the sma ll body is captured when it crosses the 2: 1 resonance with the planet. As the orbit shrinks, it becomes more eccentric until, by the time its semimaj or axis has shrunk by a factor of 4, its eccentricity reaches nearly unity (1 - e <<10(-4)). In typical planetary systems, bodies in this high-eccentr icity phase are likely to be consumed by the central star. If they can avoi d this fate, as migration continues the inclination flips from 0 degrees to i = 180 degrees; thereafter the eccentricity declines until the semimajor axis is a factor of 9 smaller than at capture, at which point the small bod y is released from the 2: 1 resonance on a nearly circular retrograde orbit . Small bodies captured into resonance from initially inclined or eccentric orbits can also be ejected from the system, or released from the resonance on highly eccentric polar orbits (i similar or equal to 90 degrees) that a re stabilized by a secular resonance. We conclude that migration could driv e much of the inner planetesimal disk into the star, and that postmigration multiplanet systems may not be coplanar.