Related papers: Long-term evolution of three-planet systems to the…
Polluted white dwarfs are generally accreting terrestrial-like material that may originate from a debris belt like the asteroid belt in the solar system. The fraction of white dwarfs that are polluted drops off significantly for white…
We identify observational signatures suggesting a history of dynamical instability in 26 out of 34 M-dwarf multi-planet systems containing no large planets. These systems may have primarily formed in a gas-rich environment, potentially…
The noteworthy four-planet HR 8799 system teeters on the brink of gravitational instability and contains an A-type host star which is characteristic of the progenitors of the majority of known white dwarf planetary system hosts. Gozdziewski…
At least 25% of white dwarfs show atmospheric pollution by metals, sometimes accompanied by detectable circumstellar dust/gas discs or (in the case of WD 1145+017) transiting disintegrating asteroids. Delivery of planetesimals to the white…
We explore the orbital dynamics of systems consisting of three planets, each as massive as the Earth, on coplanar, initially circular, orbits about a star of one solar mass. The initial semimajor axes of the planets are equally spaced in…
Several properties of the Solar System, including the wide radial spacing and orbital eccentricities of giant planets, can be explained if the early Solar System evolved through a dynamical instability followed by migration of planets in…
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…
Many observed giant planets lie on eccentric orbits. Such orbits could be the result of strong scatterings with other giant planets. The same dynamical instability that produces these scatterings may also cause habitable planets in interior…
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…
Circumstantial evidence suggests that most known extra-solar planetary systems are survivors of violent dynamical instabilities. Here we explore how giant planet instabilities affect the formation and survival of terrestrial planets. We…
Exoplanets have been detected around stars at various stages of their lives, ranging from young stars emerging from formation, to latter stages of evolution, including white dwarfs and neutron stars. Post main sequence stellar evolution can…
Validated planet candidates need not lie on long-term stable orbits, and instability triggered by post-main-sequence stellar evolution can generate architectures which transport rocky material to white dwarfs, polluting them. The giant…
A significant fraction of white dwarfs (WDs) are observed to be polluted with metals despite high surface gravities and short settling times. The current theoretical model for this pollution is accretion of rocky bodies delivered to the WD…
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…
The majority of stars form in star clusters and many are thought to have planetary companions. We demonstrate that multi-planet systems are prone to instabilities as a result of frequent stellar encounters in these star clusters much more…
Most stars form in star clusters and stellar associated. To understand the roles of star cluster environments in shaping the dynamical evolution of planetary systems, we carry out direct $N$-body simulations of four planetary systems models…
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…
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…
During the post-main sequence phase of stellar evolution the orbital distance of the habitable zone, which allows for liquid surface water on terrestrial planets, moves out past the system's original frost line, providing an opportunity for…
Planetary formation might occur at different stages of the stellar evolution of compact binaries. In recent years, the formation of second-generation planets has been tested in circumbinary discs formed by the ejection of stellar material…