Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2011-08-25
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Submitted to Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy, 25 pages, 10 figures
Scientific paper
Classical secular theory can be a powerful tool to describe the qualitative character of multi-planet systems and offer insight into their histories. For example. Major axes currently locked in alignment may indicate substantial tidal damping; current near-separatrix behavior may suggest an early mutual scattering event; and eigenmodes help assess dynamical coupling. For 55 Cancri, using the orbital solution by Fischer et al. (2008), the current alignment of major axes is fortuitous as these planets are all controlled by different eigenmodes. Also, there are two dynamical groups: the inner three planets and the outer two. With the orbit solution from Dawson and Fabrycky (2010), again the alignment of major axes is fortuitous, but the grouping is different with the innermost planet decoupled from the other inner planets which has implications for the system's tidal evolution. For 61 Virginis, the libration of the outer planets' pericenter longitudes is not due to eccentricity damping. The outer planets are in a dynamical group and libration results from initial conditions and a propensity due to the system's basic architecture (i.e. masses and semi-major axes). Classical secular theory reproduces the behavior of the hypothetical system discussed by Mardling (2007) despite the eccentricities being large. Gliese 581, HIP 14810, \mu Arae, HD 69830, and HD 37124 are also discussed.
Greenberg Richard
Van Laerhoven Christa
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