Apsidal Clustering following the Inclination Instability

Abstract

Disks of low-mass bodies on high-eccentricity orbits in near-Keplerian potentials can be dynamically unstable to buckling out of the plane. In this letter, we present $N$-body simulations of the long-term behavior of such a system, finding apsidal clustering of the orbits in the disk plane. The timescale over which the clustering is maintained increases with number of particles, suggesting that lopsided configurations are stable at large $N$. This discovery may explain the observed apsidal ($\varpi$) clustering of extreme trans-Neptunian Objects in the outer solar system.

6 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Astrophysical Journal Letters

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Testing the isotropy of the Dark Energy Survey's extreme trans-Neptunian objects
• Black Hole Discs and Spheres in Galactic Nuclei -- Exploring the Landscape of Vector Resonant Relaxation Equilibria
• Dynamical evolution of a self-gravitating planetesimal disk in the distant trans-Neptunian region
• A Lopsided Outer Solar System
• Suppression of the inclination instability in the trans-Neptunian Solar system
• Orbital features of distant trans-Neptunian objects induced by giant gaseous clumps
• Steeper Scattered Disks Buckle Faster
• Features of the Dynamical Evolution of a Massive Disk of Trans-Neptunian Objects