Related papers: Euler, Jacobi, and Missions to Comets and Asteroid…
The processes leading deformation and destruction of planets spiraling into the convective envelope of their host stars are described. The planet is compressed by the ram pressure, and deformed into a flattened shape for which a…
Coorbital bodies are observed around the Sun sharing their orbits with the planets, but also in some pairs of satellites around Saturn. The existence of coorbital planets around other stars has also been proposed. For close-in planets and…
We revisit the problem of secular resonance sweeping during the dissipation of a protoplanetary disk and its possible role in exciting the orbits of primordial asteroids, in the light of recent models of solar system evolution. We develop…
Expansions in the oscillation modes of tidally perturbed bodies provide a useful framework for representing tidally induced flows. However, recent work has demonstrated that such expansions produce inaccurate predictions for secular orbital…
A complete description of twisting somersaults is given using a reduction to a time-dependent Euler equation for non-rigid body dynamics. The central idea is that after reduction the twisting motion is apparent in a body frame, while the…
Perturbations of all sorts destabilise the rotation of a small body and leave it in a non-principal spin state. In such a state, the body experiences alternating stresses generated by the inertial forces. This yields nutation relaxation,…
In this paper we model the gravitational wave emission of a freely precessing neutron star. The aim is to estimate likely source strengths, as a guide for gravitational wave astronomers searching for such signals. We model the star as a…
To first approximation, a binary system conserves its angular momentum while it evolves to its state of minimum kinetic energy: circular orbit, all spins aligned, and components rotating in synchronism with the orbital motion. The pace at…
The practical distinctions between asteroids and comets, viewed as products of accretion on either side of the snow line, are less clear-cut than previously understood. In this chapter, we discuss the numerous solar system populations which…
We consider the dynamics of a protostellar disc in a binary system where the disc is misaligned with the orbital plane of the binary, with the aim of determining the observational consequences for such systems. The disc wobbles with a…
Many complex systems can spontaneously oscillate under non-periodic forcing. Such self-oscillators are commonplace in biological and technological assemblies where temporal periodicity is needed, such as the beating of a human heart or the…
Cassini states correspond to equilibria of the spin axis of a body when its orbit is perturbed. They were initially described for satellites, but the spin axis of stars and planets undergoing strong dissipation can also evolve into some…
We consider the evolution of a system containing a population of massive planets formed rapidly through a fragmentation process occurring on a scale on the order of 100 au and a lower mass planet that assembles in a disc on a much longer…
I discuss two related nonlinear mechanisms of tidal dissipation that require finite tidal deformations for their operation: the elliptical instability and the precessional instability. Both are likely to be important for the tidal evolution…
Disorder plays a crucial role in spin dynamics in solids and condensed matter systems. We demonstrate that for a spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate in a random potential two mechanisms of spin evolution, that can be characterized…
Short-period super-Earths and mini-Neptunes encircle more than $\sim50\%$ of Sun-like stars and are relatively amenable to direct observational characterization. Despite this, environments in which these planets accrete are difficult to…
As a comet, asteroid or planet approaches its parent star, the orbit changes shape due to the curvature of spacetime. For comets in particular, the deviation at the pericentre may noticeably change their ephemerides and affect the dynamics…
The tilt of a planet's spin axis off its orbital axis ("obliquity") is a basic physical characteristic that plays a central role in determining the planet's global circulation and energy redistribution. Moreover, recent studies have also…
We consider the tidal interaction of a fully convective primary star and a point mass. Using a normal mode decomposition we calculate the evolution of the primary angular velocity and orbit for arbitrary eccentricity e. The dissipation…
We demonstrate the existence of an enhanced rate of angular momentum relaxation in nearly Keplerian star clusters, such as those found in the centers of galactic nuclei containing massive black holes. The enhanced relaxation arises because…