Related papers: Stability of Triple Star Systems with Highly Incli…
A widely considered characteristic of extra-solar planetary systems has been a seeming tendency for major axes of adjacent orbits to librate in stable configurations. Based on a new catalog of extra-solar planets (Butler et al. 2006) and…
Kepler-56 is a multi-planet system containing two coplanar inner planets that are in orbits misaligned with respect to the spin axis of the host star, and an outer planet. Various mechanisms have been proposed to explain the broad…
The secular approximation for the evolution of hierarchical triple configurations has proven to be very useful in many astrophysical contexts, from planetary to triple-star systems. In this approximation the orbits may change shape and…
We present the discovery of six new triple stellar system candidates composed of an inner eccentric-orbit eclipsing binary with an apsidal motion. These stars were studied using new, precise TESS light curves and a long-term collection of…
Eclipsing binary DI Herculis (DI Her) is known to exhibit anomalously slow apsidal precession, below the rate predicted by the general relativity. Recent measurements of the Rossiter-McLauglin effect indicate that stellar spins in DI Her…
We study orbital inclination changes associated with the precession of a disc-planet system that occurs through gravitational interaction with a binary companion on an inclined orbit. We investigate whether this scenario can account for…
We present the first results of a Kepler survey of 41 eclipsing binaries that we undertook to search for third star companions. Such tertiaries will periodically alter the eclipse timings through light travel time and dynamical effects. We…
Eclipsing binaries are observed to have a range of eccentricities and spin-orbit misalignments (stellar obliquities). Whether such properties are primordial, or arise from post-formation dynamical interactions remains uncertain. This paper…
Contrary to the orthodox picture of planet formation resulting in a neatly ordered Solar System, exoplanet systems exhibit highly diverse orbits: short and long periods, circular and eccentric, well- and misaligned, and even retrograde…
The radial-orbit instability is a collective phenomenon that has heretofore only been observed in spherical systems. We find that this instability occurs also in triaxial systems, as we checked by performing extensive N-body simulations…
Space missions have discovered a large number of exoplanets evolving in (or close to) mean-motion resonances (MMRs) and resonant chains. Often, the published data exhibit very high uncertainties due to the observational limitations that…
The rotation of a star and the revolutions of its planets are not necessarily aligned. This article reviews the measurement techniques, key findings, and theoretical interpretations related to the obliquities (spin-orbit angles) of…
We consider the general spatial three body problem and study the dynamics of planetary systems consisting of a star and two planets which evolve into 2/1 mean motion resonance and into inclined orbits. Our study is focused on the periodic…
Periodic solutions of the three body problem are very important for understanding its dynamics either in a theoretical framework or in various applications in celestial mechanics. In this paper we discuss the computation and continuation of…
Many short-period binary stars have distant orbiting companions that have played a role in driving the binary components into close separation. Indirect detection of a tertiary star is possible by measuring apparent changes in eclipse times…
Many Sun-like stars are observed to host close-in super-Earths (SEs) as part of a multi-planetary system. In such a system, the spin of the SE evolves due to spin-orbit resonances and tidal dissipation. In the absence of tides, the planet's…
Radial velocity observations of the F8 V star Upsilon Andromedae taken at Lick and at Whipple Observatories have revealed evidence of three periodicities in the line-of-sight velocity of the star. These periodicities have been interpreted…
We perform numerical simulations to explore the dynamical evolution of the HD 82943 planetary system. By simulating diverse planetary configurations, we find two mechanisms of stabilizing the system: the 2:1 mean motion resonance between…
The Kepler mission has detected a number of transiting circumbinary planets (CBPs). Although currently not detected, exomoons could be orbiting some of these CBPs, and they might be suitable for harboring life. A necessary condition for the…
Self-consistent solutions for triaxial mass models are highly non-unique. In general, some of these solutions might be dynamically unstable, making them inappropriate as descriptions of steady-state galaxies. Here we demonstrate for the…