Related papers: A semi-empirical stability criterion for real plan…
Orbital resonances play an important role in the dynamics of planetary systems. Classical theoretical analyses found in textbooks report that libration widths of first order mean motion resonances diverge for nearly circular orbits. Here we…
We show that stability of planetary systems is intimately connected with their internal order. An arbitrary initial distribution of planets is susceptible to catastrophic events in which planets either collide or are ejected from the…
The presence of mean motion resonances (MMRs) complicates analysis and fitting of planetary systems observed through the radial velocity (RV) technique. MMR can allow planets to remain stable in regions of phase space where strong…
A symplectic integrator algorithm suitable for hierarchical triple systems is formulated and tested. The positions of the stars are followed in hierarchical Jacobi coordinates, whilst the planets are referenced purely to their primary. The…
We start by reviewing our previous work on retrograde orbital configurations and on modeling and identifying retrograde resonances. Then, we present new results regarding the enhanced stability of retrograde configurations with respect to…
Divergent migration of planets within a viscous circumstellar disk can engender resonance crossings and dramatic excitation of orbital eccentricities. We provide quantitative criteria for the viability of this mechanism. For the orbits of…
Determining the orbital eccentricity of an extrasolar planet is critically important for understanding the system's dynamical environment and history. However, eccentricity is often poorly determined or entirely mischaracterized due to poor…
There exists a positive correlation between orbital eccentricity and the average stellar flux that planets receive from their parent star. Often, though, it is assumed that the average equilibrium temperature would correspondingly increase…
We develop a technique for estimating the inner eccentricity in hierarchical triple systems, with the inner orbit being initially circular, while the outer one is eccentric. We consider coplanar systems with well separated components and…
Star-planet interactions play, among other things, a crucial role in planetary orbital configurations by circularizing orbits, aligning the star and planet spin and synchronizing stellar rotation with orbital motions. This is especially…
We show that in a system of two planets initially in nearly circular orbits, an impulse perturbation that imparts a finite eccentricity to one planet's orbit causes the other planet's orbit to become eccentric as well, and also naturally…
In the near future there will be launched space missions (e.g. COROT, KEPLER), designed to detect Earth-like extrasolar planets. The orbital elements of these (still hypothetic) planets will contain some uncertainties, that can only be…
We investigate the evolution of families of periodic orbits in a bisymmetrical potential made up of a two-dimensional harmonic oscillator with only one quartic perturbing term, in a number of resonant cases. Our main objective is to compute…
We investigate the orbital dynamics of four-planet systems consisting of Earth-mass planets on initially-circular, coplanar orbits around a star of one solar mass. In our simulations, the innermost planet's semimajor axis is set at 1 AU,…
Eccentricity is a parameter of particular interest as it is an informative indicator of the past of planetary systems. It is however not always clear whether the eccentricity fitted on radial velocity data is real or if it is an artefact of…
We develop a technique for estimating the inner eccentricity in hierarchical triple systems with well separated components. We investigate systems with initially circular and coplanar orbits and comparable masses. The technique is based on…
The two innermost planets of the Proxima Centauri system are separated by just 0.02 au, inducing strong gravitational interactions between them. We assess this interaction by leveraging fast orbital stability indicators and find that…
We study the long-term dynamics of the PSR 1257+12 planetary system. Using the recently determined accurate initial condition by Konacki & Wolszczan (2003) who derived the orbital inclinations and the absolute masses of the planets B and C,…
We study the exponential stability of evolutionary equations. The focus is laid on second order problems and we provide a way to rewrite them as a suitable first order evolutionary equation, for which the stability can be proved by using…
We re-evaluate the outer edge of orbital stability for possible exomoons orbiting the radial velocity planet discovered in the HD 23079 system. In this system, a solar-type star hosts a Jupiter-mass planet in a nearly circular orbit in the…