The Resonance Hopping Effect in the Neptune-Planet Nine System

Abstract

The observed physical clustering of the orbits of small bodies in the distant Kuiper Belt (TNOs) has recently prompted the prediction of an additional planet in the outer solar system. Since the initial posing of the hypothesis, the effects of Planet Nine on the dynamics of the main cluster of TNOs - the objects anti-aligned with its orbit - have been well-studied. In particular, numerical simulations have revealed a fascinating phenomenon, referred to as "resonance hopping", in which these objects abruptly transition between different mean-motion commensurabilities with Planet Nine. In this work, we explore this effect in greater detail, with the goal of understanding what mechanism prompts the hopping events to occur. In the process, we elucidate the often underestimated role of Neptune scattering interactions, which leads to diffusion in the semi-major axes of these distant TNOs. In addition, we demonstrate that although some resonant interactions with Planet Nine do occur, the anti-aligned objects are able to survive without the resonances, confirming that the dynamics of the TNOs are predominantly driven by secular, rather than resonant, interactions with Planet Nine.

arXiv commentaccepted to PASP

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• The Stability Boundary of the Distant Scattered Disk
• Injection of Inner Oort Cloud Objects Into the Distant Kuiper Belt by Planet Nine
• 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
• Dark matter heating of Planet 9, and its observational implications