Orbital Stability of Circumstellar Planets in Binary Systems

Abstract

Planets that orbit only one of the stars in stellar binary systems (i.e., circumstellar) are dynamically constrained to a limited range of orbital parameters and thus understanding conditions on their stability is of great importance in exoplanet searches. We perform $\sim$700 million N-body simulations to identify how stability regions depend on properties of the binary, as well as, the starting planetary inclination and mean longitude relative to the binary orbit. Moreover, we provide grid interpolation maps and lookup tables for the community to use our results. Through Monte-Carlo methods we determine that planets with a semimajor axis $a_p$ $\lesssim$8\% of the binary semimajor axis $a_{bin}$ will likely be stable given the known distribution of binary star parameters. This estimate varies in the Lidov-Kozai regime or for retrograde orbits to 4\% or 10\% of $a_{bin}$, respectively. Our method to quickly determine the circumstellar stability limit is important for interpreting observations of binaries using direct imaging with JWST, photometry with TESS, or even astrometry with Gaia.

28 pages, 10 figures, 6 tables; accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal. Numerical tools and data are available in a Github (see https://github.com/saturnaxis/ThreeBody_Stability) and Zenodo (see http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3579202) repository, respectively

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• HD 143006: circumbinary planet or misaligned disc?
• Long-term stability of planets in and around binary stars
• Exomoons in Systems with a Strong Perturber: Applications to $\alpha$ Cen AB
• Effects of Flux Variation on the Surface Temperatures of Earth-like Circumbinary Planets
• A photospheric and chromospheric activity analysis of the quiescent retrograde-planet host $\nu$ Octantis A
• On the stability of planetary orbits in binary star systems I. The S-type orbits
• Planetary migration in precessing disks for S-type wide binaries
• Low Spin-Axis Variations of Circumbinary Planets