Related papers: Improved equations for eccentricity generation in …
The most puzzling property of the extrasolar planets discovered by recent radial velocity surveys is their high orbital eccentricities, which are very difficult to explain within our current theoretical paradigm for planet formation.…
We determine the orbital eccentricities of individual small Kepler planets, through a combination of asteroseismology and transit light-curve analysis. We are able to constrain the eccentricities of 51 systems with a single transiting…
The non-resonant secular dynamics of compact planetary systems are modeled by a perturbing function which is usually expanded in eccentricity and absolute inclination with respect to the invariant plane. Here, the expressions are given in a…
The equations of motion of a secularly precessing ellipse are developed using time as the independent variable. The equations are useful when integrating numerically the perturbations about a reference trajectory which is subject to secular…
Orbital motions in four hierarchical stellar systems discovered by speckle interferometry are studied. Their inner orbits are relatively well constrained, while the long outer orbits are less certain. The eccentric and misaligned inner…
We numerically investigate the dynamics of orbits in 3D circumbinary phase-space as a function of binary eccentricity and mass fraction. We find that inclined circumbinary orbits in the elliptically-restricted three-body problem display a…
We present a new theoretical analysis of the PSR B1620-26 triple system in the globular cluster M4, based on the latest radio pulsar timing data, which now include measurements of five time derivatives of the pulse frequency. These data…
We analytically derive the secular changes of the orbital parameters, i.e., energy, angular momentum, and Carter constant, for general bound orbits in Kerr spacetime, at leading order in the mass ratio, through the 6th post-Newtonian (6PN)…
We identify a new secular instability of eccentric stellar disks around supermassive black holes. We show that retrograde precession of the stellar orbits, due to the presence of a stellar cusp, induces coherent torques that amplify…
Hierarchical triple stars are ideal laboratories for studying the interplay between orbital dynamics and stellar evolution. Both stellar wind mass loss and three-body dynamics cooperate to destabilise triples, which can lead to a variety of…
We describe the long-term evolution of compact systems of terrestrial planets, using a set of simulations that match the statistical properties of the observed exoplanet distribution. The evolution is driven by tidal dissipation in the…
We implement the geometric method proposed in ([9], [3], [16]) to analytically predict the sequence of bifurcations leading to a change of stability and/or the appearance of new periodic orbits in the secular 3D planetary three body…
The gradual evolution of the restricted hierarchical three body problem is analyzed analytically, focusing on conditions of Kozai-Lidov Cycles that may lead to orbital flips from prograde to retrograde motion due to the octupole (third…
We investigate the non-resonant, 3-D (spatial) model of the hierarchical system composed of point-mass stellar (or sub-stellar) binary and a low-mass companion (a circumbinary planet or a brown dwarf). We take into account the leading…
The formation of close binaries has been an open question for decades. A large fraction of close binaries are in triple systems, suggesting that their formation may be associated with the Kozai-Lidov mechanism. However, this picture remains…
The large eccentricities of cold Jupiters and the existence of hot Jupiters have long challenged theories of planet formation. A proposed solution to both of these puzzles is high-eccentricity migration, in which an initially cold Jupiter…
A fundamental aspect of the three-body problem is its stability. Most stability studies have focused on the co-planar three-body problem, deriving analytic criteria for the dynamical stability of such pro/retrograde systems. Numerical…
The predicted orbital-period distribution of the subdwarf-B (sdB) population is bi-modal with a peak at short (< 10 days) and long (> 500 days) periods. Observationally, many short-period sdB systems are known, but only few wide sdB…
Symplectic integrators are widely used for the study of planetary dynamics and other $N$-body problems. In a study of the outer Solar system, we demonstrate that individual symplectic integrations can yield biased errors in the semi-major…
Observations in the past decade have revealed extrasolar planets with a wide range of orbital semimajor axes and eccentricities. Based on the present understanding of planet formation via core accretion and oligarchic growth, we expect that…