Tidal Evolution of a Secularly Interacting Planetary System
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
2015-05-27 v1 Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Abstract
In a multi-planet system, a gradual change in one planet's semi-major axis will affect the eccentricities of all the planets, as angular momentum is distributed via secular interactions. If tidal dissipation in the planet is the cause of the change in semi-major axis, it also damps that planet's eccentricity, which in turn also contributes to the evolution of all the eccentricities. Formulae quantifying the combined effects on the whole system due to semi-major axis changes, as well as eccentricity damping, are derived here for a two-planet system. The CoRoT 7 system is considered as an example.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1103.2794,
title = {Tidal Evolution of a Secularly Interacting Planetary System},
author = {Richard Greenberg and Christa Van Laerhoven},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1103.2794},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal, 17 pages, including 1 figure