The dynamical architecture and habitable zones of the quintuplet planetary system 55 Cancri

We perform numerical simulations to study the secular orbital evolution and dynamical structure of the quintuplet planetary system 55 Cancri with the self-consistent orbital solutions by Fischer and coworkers. In the simulations, we show that this sys-tem can be stable for at least 108 yr. In addition, we extensively investigate the planetary configuration of four outer companions with one terrestrial planet in the wide region of 0.790 AU ≤ a ≤ 5.900 AU to examine the existence of potential asteroid structure and Habitable Zones (HZs). We show that there are unstable regions for orbits about 4:1, 3:1 and 5:2 mean motion resonances (MMRs) of the outermost planet in the system, and sev-eral stable orbits can remain at 3:2 and 1:1 MMRs, which resembles the asteroid belt in the solar system. From a dynamical viewpoint, proper HZ candidates for the existence of more potential terrestrial planets reside in the wide area between 1.0 AU and 2.3 AU with relatively low eccentricities.     

Global dynamics of the Gliese 876 planetary system

The Gliese 876 planetary system consists of two Jupiter-like planets having a nearly commensurate 2:1 orbital periods ratio. Because the semimajor axes of the planets are very small (of the order 0.1 au and 0.2 au, respectively), and the eccentricity of the inner companion is ≃0.3, the mutual perturbations are extremely large. However, many authors claim the long-term orbital stability of the system, at least over 500 Myr for initial conditions found by Rivera & Lissauer. Results of investigations of a migration of initially separated planets into the close 2:1 mean motion resonance lock from Lee & Peale also support the conclusion that the system should be stable for the lifetime of the parent star. Initial conditions of the system, found from non-linear N -body fits by Laughlin & Chambers and Rivera & Lissauer, to the radial velocity curve, formally allow for a variety of orbital configurations of the GJ 876 system, e.g. coplanar, with planetary inclinations in the range [≃30°, 90°], and with relative inclinations of orbital planes as high as 80°. Our work is devoted to the stability investigation of the systems originating from the fitted initial conditions. We study neighbourhoods of these initial states in the orbital parameter space. We found estimations of the 2:1 mean motion resonance width and dynamical limitations on the planetary masses. We also obtain a global representation of the domains of the orbital parameters space in which initial conditions leading to stable evolutions can be found. Our results can be useful in localization of the best, stable fits to the observational data. In our investigations we use the MEGNO technique (the Mean Exponential Growth factor of Nearby Orbits) invented by Cincotta & Simó. It allows us to distinguish efficiently and precisely between chaotic and regular behaviour of a planetary system.     

On the habitability of the OGLE-2006-BLG-109L planetary system

We investigate the dynamics of putative Earth-mass planets in the habitable zone (HZ) of the extrasolar planetary system OGLE-2006-BLG-109L, a close analogue of the Solar system. Our work is inspired by the work of Malhotra & Minton. Using the linear Laplace–Lagrange theory, they identified a strong secular resonance that may excite large eccentricity of orbits in the HZ. However, due to uncertain or unconstrained orbital parameters, the subsystem of Jupiters may be found in a dynamically active region of the phase space spanned by low-order mean-motion resonances. To generalize this secular model, we construct a semi-analytical averaging method in terms of the restricted problem. The secular orbits of large planets are approximated by numerically averaged osculating elements. They are used to calculate the mean orbits of terrestrial planets by means of a high-order analytic secular theory developed in our previous works. We found regions in the parameter space of the problem in which stable, quasi-circular orbits in the HZ are permitted. The excitation of eccentricity in the HZ strongly depends on the apsidal angle of jovian orbits. For some combinations of that angle, eccentricities and semimajor axes consistent with the observations, a terrestrial planet may survive in low eccentric orbits. We also study the effect of post-Newtonian gravity correction on the innermost secular resonance.     

On the 2/1 resonant planetary dynamics – periodic orbits and dynamical stability

The 2/1 resonant dynamics of a two-planet planar system is studied within the framework of the three-body problem by computing families of periodic orbits and their linear stability. The continuation of resonant periodic orbits from the restricted to the general problem is studied in a systematic way. Starting from the Keplerian unperturbed system, we obtain the resonant families of the circular restricted problem. Then, we find all the families of the resonant elliptic restricted three-body problem, which bifurcate from the circular model. All these families are continued to the general three-body problem, and in this way we can obtain a global picture of all the families of periodic orbits of a two-planet resonant system. The parametric continuation, within the framework of the general problem, takes place by varying the planetary mass ratio ρ. We obtain bifurcations which are caused either due to collisions of the families in the space of initial conditions or due to the vanishing of bifurcation points. Our study refers to the whole range of planetary mass ratio values  [ρ∈ (0, ∞)]  and, therefore we include the passage from external to internal resonances. Thus, we can obtain all possible stable configurations in a systematic way. As an application, we consider the dynamics of four known planetary systems at the 2/1 resonance and we examine if they are associated with a stable periodic orbit.     

A dynamical analysis of the 14 Herculis planetary system

Precision radial velocity measurements of the Sun-like dwarf 14 Herculis published by Naef et al., Butler et al. and Wittenmyer, Endl & Cochran reveal a Jovian planet in a 1760-d orbit and a trend indicating the second distant object. On the grounds of dynamical considerations, we test a hypothesis that the trend can be explained by the presence of an additional giant planet. We derive dynamical limits to the orbital parameters of the putative outer Jovian companion in an orbit within ∼13 au. In this case, the mutual interactions between the Jovian planets are important for the long-term stability of the system. The best self-consistent and stable Newtonian fit to an edge-on configuration of Jovian planets has the outer planet in 9-au orbit with a moderate eccentricity of ∼0.2 and confined to a zone spanned by the low-order mean motion resonances 5:1 and 6:1. This solution lies in a shallow minimum of (χ²_ν)^1/2 and persists over a wide range of the system inclination. Other stable configurations within 1σ confidence interval of the best fit are possible for the semimajor axis of the outer planet in the range of (6,13) au and the eccentricity in the range of (0, 0.3). The orbital inclination cannot yet be determined but when it decreases, both planetary masses approach ∼10 m _J and for i ∼ 30° the hierarchy of the masses is reversed.     

The formation and stability of the configuration of the planetary system HD 126611

Recent Doppler velocity measurements have revealed the existence of two planets orbiting the star HD 12661 on medium-eccentricity orbits. The inner planet has a period of 263.6 d and a mass of 2.3 Jupiter masses, and the outer planet has a period of 1444.5d and a mass of 1.57 Jupiter masses. The stability of this system requires the two planets to be in a state of mean-motion orbit resonances. By numerical method we have studied the orbit migration and stability of the system in its early ages under the action of the proto-stellar disk, and calculated the probabilities of the planets being captured into the mean -motion resonances during their migrations. It is found that at present the two planets are probably situated at the edge of the 11:2 mean-motion resonance and are in chaotic motions. This result may be helpful to clarify the arguments on the present configuration. Besides, it is indicated that very probably, after the formation of the system, the gaseous disk has almost disappeared before the planets migrated to the present configuration.     

Escape from planetary neighbourhoods

In this paper we use recently developed phase-space transport theory coupled with a so-called classical spectral theorem to develop a dynamically exact and computationally efficient procedure for studying escape from a planetary neighbourhood. The 'planetary neighbourhood' is a bounded region of phase space where entrance and escape are only possible by entering or exiting narrow 'bottlenecks' created by the influence of a saddle point. The method therefore immediately applies to, for example, the circular restricted three-body problem and Hill's lunar problem (which we use to illustrate the results), but it also applies to more complex, and higher-dimensional, systems possessing the relevant phase-space structure. It is shown how one can efficiently compute the mean passage time through the planetary neighbourhood, the phase-space flux in, and out, of the planetary neighbourhood, the phase-space volume of initial conditions corresponding to trajectories that escape from the planetary neighbourhood, and the fraction of initial conditions in the planetary neighbourhood corresponding to bound trajectories. These quantities are computed for Hill's problem. We study the dependence of the proportions of these quantities on energy and dimensionality (two-dimensional planar and three-dimensional spatial Hill's problem). The methods and quantities presented are of central interest for many celestial and stellar dynamical applications such as, for example, the capture and escape of moons near giant planets, the formation of binaries in the Kuiper belt and the escape of stars from star clusters orbiting about a galaxy.     

A secular theory of coplanar, non-resonant planetary system

We present the secular theory of coplanar N -planet system, in the absence of mean motion resonances between the planets. This theory relies on the averaging of a perturbation to the two-body problem over the mean longitudes. We expand the perturbing Hamiltonian in Taylor series with respect to the ratios of semimajor axes which are considered as small parameters, without direct restrictions on the eccentricities. Next, we average out the resulting series term by term. This is possible thanks to a particular but in fact quite elementary choice of the integration variables. It makes it possible to avoid Fourier expansions of the perturbing Hamiltonian. We derive high-order expansions of the averaged secular Hamiltonian (here, up to the order of 24) with respect to the semimajor axes ratio. The resulting secular theory is a generalization of the octupole theory. The analytical results are compared with the results of numerical (i.e. practically exact) averaging. We estimate the convergence radius of the derived expansions, and we propose a further improvement of the algorithm. As a particular application of the method, we consider the secular dynamics of three-planet coplanar system. We focus on stationary solutions in the HD 37124 planetary system.     

High-inclination planets and asteroids in multistellar systems

The Kozai mechanism often destabilizes high-inclination orbits. It couples changes in the eccentricity and inclination, and drives high inclination, circular orbits to low inclination, eccentric orbits. In a recent study of the dynamics of planetesimals in the quadruple star system HD 98800, there were significant numbers of stable particles in circumbinary polar orbits about the inner binary pair which are apparently able to evade the Kozai instability.
Here, we isolate this feature and investigate the dynamics through numerical and analytical models. The results show that the Kozai mechanism of the outer star is disrupted by a nodal libration induced by the inner binary pair on a shorter time-scale. By empirically modelling the period of the libration, a criteria for determining the high-inclination stability limits in general triple systems is derived. The nodal libration feature is interesting and, although affecting inclination and node only, shows many parallels to the Kozai mechanism. This raises the possibility that high-inclination planets and asteroids may be able to survive in multistellar systems.     

Dynamic portrait of the planetary 2/1 mean-motion resonance – I. Systems with a more massive outer planet

We analyse the global structure of the phase space of the planar planetary 2/1 mean-motion resonance in cases where the outer planet is more massive than its inner companion. Inside the resonant domain, we show the existence of two families of periodic orbits, one associated to the librational motion of resonant angle (σ-family) and the other related to the circulatory motion of the difference in longitudes of pericentre (  Δϖ  -family). The well-known apsidal corotation resonances (ACR) appear as intersections between both families. A complex web of secondary resonances is also detected for low eccentricities, whose strengths and positions are dependent on the individual masses and spatial scale of the system.
The construction of dynamical maps for various values of the total angular momentum shows the evolution of the families of stable motion with the eccentricities, identifying possible configurations suitable for exoplanetary systems. For low–moderate eccentricities, several different stable modes exist outside the ACR. For larger eccentricities, however, all stable solutions are associated to oscillations around the stationary solutions.
Finally, we present a possible link between these stable families and the process of resonance capture, identifying the most probable routes from the secular region to the resonant domain, and discussing how the final resonant configuration may be affected by the extension of the chaotic layer around the resonance region.     

The Hill stability of a binary or planetary system during encounters with a third inclined body

The dynamical interaction of a binary or planetary system and a third body moving on a parabolic orbit inclined to the system is discussed in terms of Hill stability for the full three-body problem. The situation arises in binary star disruption and exchange, in extrasolar planetary system disruption, exchange and capture. It is found that increasing the inclination of the third body decreases the Hill regions of stability. This makes exchange or disruption of the component masses more likely as does increasing the eccentricity of the binary.
The stability criteria are applied to determine possible disruption and capture distances for currently known extrasolar planetary systems.     

The role of cluster evolution in disrupting planetary systems and discs: the Kozai mechanism

We examine the effects of dynamical evolution in clusters on planetary systems or protoplanetary discs orbiting the components of binary stars. In particular, we look for evidence that the companions of host stars of planetary systems or discs could have their inclination angles raised from zero to between the threshold angles (39.23° and 140.77°) that can induce the Kozai mechanism. We find that up to 20 per cent of binary systems have their inclination angles increased to within the threshold range. Given that half of all extrasolar planets could be in binary systems, we suggest that up to 10 per cent of extrasolar planets could be affected by this mechanism.