Feasibility of a resonance-based Planet Nine search

Abstract

It has been proposed that mean motion resonances (MMRs) between Planet Nine and distant objects of the scattered disk might inform the semimajor axis and instantaneous position of Planet Nine. Within the context of this hypothesis, the specific distribution of occupied MMRs largely determines the available constraints. Here we characterize the behavior of scattered Kuiper Belt objects arising in the presence of an eccentric Planet Nine ($e_9\in 0.1$, $0.7$), focusing on relative sizes of populations occupying particular commensurabilities. Highlighting the challenge of predicting the exact MMR of a given object, we find that the majority of resonant test particles have period ratios with Planet Nine other than those of the form $P_9/P=N/1$, $N/2$ $(N\in {\mathbb{Z}}^{+})$. Taking into account the updated prior distribution of MMRs outlined in this work, we find that the close spacing of high-order resonances, as well as chaotic transport, preclude resonance-based Planet Nine constraints from current observational data.

arXiv comment6 pages, 7 figures

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• The Planet Nine Hypothesis
• A New High Perihelion Inner Oort Cloud Object: 2015 TG387
• Orbital precession in the distant solar system; further constraining the Planet Nine hypothesis with numerical simulations
• Stability of Neptune's distant resonances in the presence of Planet Nine
• Outer Solar System Perihelion Gap Formation Through Interactions with a Hypothetical Distant Giant Planet
• The Resonance Hopping Effect in the Neptune-Planet Nine System
• The orbit of Planet Nine