Related papers: Dynamics of planetary rings under thermal forces
We use quantum scattering theory to study a fixed quantum system Y subject to collisions with massive particles X described by wave-packets. We derive the scattering map for system Y and show that the induced evolution crucially depends on…
The spin state of small asteroids can change on a long timescale by the Yarkovsky-O'Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack (YORP) effect, the net torque that arises from anisotropically scattered sunlight and proper thermal radiation from an…
The extrasolar planets discovered to date possess unexpected orbital elements. Most orbit their host stars with larger eccentricities and smaller semi-major axes than similarly sized planets in our own solar system do. It is generally…
We study the dynamics of a planet on an orbit inclined with respect to a disc. If the initial inclination of the orbit is larger than some critical value, the gravitational force exerted by the disc on the planet leads to a Kozai cycle in…
We explore the Yarkovsky effect on small binary asteroids. While significant attention has been given to the binary YORP effect, the Yarkovsky effect is often overlooked. We develop an analytical model for the binary Yarkovsky effect,…
The discovery of many giant planets in close-in orbits and the effect of planetary and stellar tides in their subsequent orbital decay have been extensively studied in the context of planetary formation and evolution theories. Planets…
Planets with masses between 0.1 - 10 M_earth are believed to host dense atmospheres. These atmospheres can play an important role on the planet's spin evolution, since thermal atmospheric tides, driven by the host star, may counterbalance…
Recent discoveries of several transiting planets with clearly non-zero eccentricities and some large inclinations started changing the simple picture of close-in planets having circular and well-aligned orbits. Two major scenarios to form…
Planets with several Earth masses and a few day orbital periods have been discovered through radial velocity and transit surveys. Regardless of their formation mechanism, a key evolution issue is the efficiency of their retention near their…
Large dips in the brightness for a number of stars have been observed, for which the tentative explanation is occultation of the star by a transiting circumplanetary disk or ring system. In order for the circumplanetary disk/rings to block…
Most transiting planets orbit very close to their parent star, causing strong tidal forces between the two bodies. Tidal interaction can modify the dynamics of the system through orbital alignment, circularisation, synchronisation, and…
We present a new empirical calibration of equilibrium tidal theory for extrasolar planet systems, extending a prior study by incorporating detailed physical models for the internal structure of planets and host stars. The resulting strength…
The Yarkovsky-O'Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack (YORP) effect is a net torque caused by solar radiation directly reflected and thermally re-emitted from the surface of small asteroids and is considered to be crucial in their dynamical evolution.…
We present a new planetary structure/thermal evolution model, designed for use in problems that couple orbital dynamics with planetary structure. We first benchmark our structural/thermal evolution calculations against the \texttt{MESA}…
Observations of time-resolved thermal emission from tidally locked exoplanets can tell us about their atmospheric temperature structure. Telescopes such as JWST and ARIEL will improve the quality and availability of these measurements. This…
We develop a dynamical theory for the origin of nuclear rings in barred galaxies. In analogy with the standard theory of accretion discs, our theory is based on shear viscous forces among nested annuli of gas. However, the fact that gas…
Recent studies on the planet-dominated regime of Type II migration showed that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, massive planets can migrate outwards. Using `fixed-planet' simulations these studies found a correlation between the sign…
Saturn's diffuse E ring consists of many tiny (micron and sub-micron) grains of water ice distributed between the orbits of Mimas and Titan. Various gravitational and non-gravitational forces perturb these particles' orbits, causing the…
The diamagnetism of ice particles of the rings can explain their separation and the sharp edges of the rings. The existing gravitational theories of the origin of rings can't explain these observed facts. Taking into account the magnetic…
This paper studies the long term evolution of planetary systems containing short-period planets, including the effects of tidal circularization, secular excitation of eccentricity by companion planets, and stellar damping. For planetary…