Related papers: A simple scaling for the minimum instability time-…
Two types of stability boundaries exist for any planetary system consisting of one star and two planets. Lagrange stability requires that the planets remain bound to the star, conserves the ordering of the distance from the star, and limits…
We study the dynamical stability of planetary systems consisting of one hypothetical terrestrial mass planet ($1 $ or $10 \mearth$) and one massive planet ($10 \mearth - 10 \mjup$). We consider masses and orbits that cover the range of…
To improve our understanding of orbital instabilities in compact planetary systems, we compare suites of $N$-body simulations against numerical integrations of simplified dynamical models. We show that, surprisingly, dynamical models that…
The dynamical stability of tightly packed exoplanetary systems remains poorly understood. While for a two-planet system a sharp stability boundary exists, numerical simulations of three and more planet systems show that they can experience…
The relationship between the boundaries for Hill and Lagrange stability in orbital element space is modified in the case of resonantly interacting planets. Hill stability requires the ordering of the planets to remain constant while…
We present a stability analysis of a large set of simulated planetary systems of three or more planets based on architectures of multiplanet systems discovered by \textit{Kepler} and \textit{K2}. We propagated 21,400 simulated planetary…
In the coming years, high contrast imaging surveys are expected to reveal the characteristics of the population of wide-orbit, massive, exoplanets. To date, a handful of wide planetary mass companions are known, but only one such…
Compact planetary systems with more than two planets can undergo orbital crossings from planet-planet perturbations. The time which the system remains stable without orbital crossings has an exponential dependence on the initial orbital…
Exoplanet detection surveys revealed the existence of numerous multi-planetary systems packed close to their stability limit. In this proceeding, we review the mechanism driving the instability of compact systems, originally published in…
Exoplanets have been observed at many stages of their host star's life, including the main sequence (MS), subgiant and red giant branch stages. Also, polluted white dwarfs (WDs) likely represent dynamically active systems at late times.…
A large sample of planet-planet scattering events for three planet systems with different orbital separations and masses is analyzed with a multiple regression model. The dependence of the time for the onset of instability on the masses of…
Motivated by the population of multi-planet systems with orbital period ratios 1<P2/P1<2, we study the long-term stability of packed two planet systems. The Hamiltonian for two massive planets on nearly circular and nearly coplanar orbits…
Many of the multi-planet systems discovered to date have been notable for their compactness, with neighbouring planets closer together than any in the Solar System. Interestingly, planet-hosting stars have a wide range of ages, suggesting…
A new era of directly imaged extrasolar planets has produced a three-planet system (Marois et al. 2008), where the masses of the planets have been estimated by untested cooling models. We point out that the nominal circular, face-on orbits…
Planetary systems with more than two bodies will experience orbital crossings at a time related to the initial orbital separations of the planets. After a crossing, the system enters a period of chaotic evolution ending in the reshaping of…
We study the stability of systems of three giant planets orbiting 3 - 8 M_Sol stars at orbital distances of >10 au as the host star ages through the Main Sequence (MS) and well into the White Dwarf (WD) stage. Systems are stable on the MS…
Instabilities and strong dynamical interactions between multiple giant planets have been proposed as a possible explanation for the surprising orbital properties of extrasolar planetary systems. In particular, dynamical instabilities seem…
The dynamics of systems of two and three planets, initially placed on circular and nearly coplanar orbits, is explored in the proximity of their stability limit. The evolution of a large number of systems is numerically computed and their…
(Abridged) In planetary systems with two or more giant planets, dynamical instabilities can lead to collisions or ejections through strong planet--planet scattering. Previous studies for simple initial configurations with two equal-mass…
The significant orbital eccentricities of most giant extrasolar planets may have their origin in the gravitational dynamics of initially unstable multiple planet systems. In this work, we explore the dynamics of two close planets on…