Stability of the Outer Planets in Multiresonant Configurations with a Self-gravitating Planetesimal Disk

Abstract

We study the effect of a massive planetesimal disk on the dynamical stability of the outer planets assuming, as has been suggested recently, that these were initially locked in a compact and multiresonant configuration as a result of gas-driven migration in a protoplanetary disk. The gravitational interaction among all bodies in our simulations is included self-consistently using the Mercury6.5 code. Several initial multiresonant configurations and planetesimal disk models are considered. Under such conditions a strong dynamical instability, manifested as a rapid giant planet migration and planetesimal disk dispersal, develops on a timescale of less than 40 Myr in most cases. Dynamical disk heating due to the gravitational interactions among planetesimals leads to more frequent interactions between the planetesimals and the ice giants Uranus and Neptune, in comparison to models in which planetesitmal-planetesimal interactions are neglected. On account of the rapid evolution of the multiresonant configurations obtained with fully self-consistent simulations, our results are inconsistent with the dynamical instability origin of the Late Heavy Bombardment as currently considered by the Nice model for the Solar System.

arXiv commentSubmitted to ApJ, 30 pages, 12 figures

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Not a simple relationship between Neptune's migration speed and Kuiper belt inclination excitation
• Instabilities in the Early Solar System due to a Self-gravitating Disk
• Simulations of the Solar System's Early Dynamical Evolution with a Self-Gravitating Planetesimal Disk
• Dynamical evolution of a self-gravitating planetesimal disk in the distant trans-Neptunian region
• Collisional Growth Within the Solar System's Primordial Planetesimal Disk and the Timing of the Giant Planet Instability