Long-Term Dynamics and the Orbital Inclinations of the Classical Kuiper Belt Objects

We numerically integrated the orbits of 1458 particles in the region of the classical Kuiper Belt (41 AU < a < 47 AU) to explore the role of dynamical instabilities in sculpting the inclination distribution of the classical Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs). We find that the selective removal of low-inclination objects by overlapping secular resonances (nu_17 and nu_18) acts to raise the mean inclination of the surviving population of particles over 4 billion years of interactions with Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, though these long-term dynamical effects do not themselves appear to explain the discovery of KBOs with inclinations near 30 degrees. Our integrations also imply that after 3 billion years of interaction with the massive planets, high inclination KBOs more efficiently supply Neptune-encountering objects, the likely progenitors of short-period comets, Centaurs, and scattered KBOs. The secular resonances at low inclinations may indirectly cause this effect by weeding out objects unprotected by mean motion resonances during the first 3 billion years.