On the Estimation of Circumbinary Orbital Properties

Abstract

We describe a fast, approximate method to characterize the orbits of satellites around a central binary in numerical simulations. A goal is to distinguish the free eccentricity -- random motion of a satellite relative to a dynamically cool orbit -- from oscillatory modes driven by the central binary's time-varying gravitational potential. We assess the performance of the method using the Kepler-16, Kepler-47, and Pluto-Charon systems. We then apply the method to a simulation of orbital damping in a circumbinary environment, resolving relative speeds between small bodies that are slow enough to promote mergers and growth. These results illustrate how dynamical cooling can set the stage for the formation of Tatooine-like planets around stellar binaries and the small moons around the Pluto-Charon binary planet.

24 pages with 7 figures and 3 tables, AJ, in press

References in corpus (20)

• The Transiting Circumbinary Planets Kepler-34 and Kepler-35
• Variations on Debris Disks: Icy Planet Formation at 30-150 AU for 1-3 Solar Mass Main Sequence Stars
• Full Numerical Simulations of Catastrophic Small Body Collisions
• Formation of close in Super-Earths \& Mini-Neptunes: Required Disk Masses \& Their Implications
• On the Abundance of Circumbinary Planets
• Terrestrial Planet Formation Surrounding Close Binary Stars
• Relative velocities among accreting planetesimals in binary systems: the circumbinary case
• A Hybrid N-body--Coagulation Code for Planet Formation
• TOI-1338: TESS' First Transiting Circumbinary Planet
• Rapid Formation of Icy Super-Earths and the Cores of Gas Giant Planets
• Planet formation by pebble accretion in ringed disks
• On the migration of protoplanets embedded in circumbinary disks
• Analytic orbit propagation for transiting circumbinary planets
• A dynamical stability study of Kepler Circumbinary Planetary systems with one planet
• Instabilities in Multi-Planet Circumbinary Systems
• A Pluto-Charon Concerto: An Impact on Charon as the Origin of the Small Satellites
• A Pluto--Charon Sonata: Dynamical Limits on the Masses of the Small Satellites
• The Fate of Debris in the Pluto-Charon System
• A Numerical Method for Determining the Elements of Circumbinary Orbits and Its Application to Circumbinary Planets and the Satellites of Pluto-Charon
• Nature or nurture of coplanar Tatooines: the aligned circumbinary Kuiper belt analogue around HD 131511

Cited by in corpus (4)

• A Pluto--Charon Concerto II. Formation of a Circumbinary Disk of Debris After the Giant Impact
• Orbit determination of the moons of the Pluto-Charon system
• Orbital analysis of the Pluto-Charon moon system's mutual interactions and forced frequencies
• A Pluto--Charon Sonata IV. Improved Constraints on the Dynamical Behavior and Masses of the Small Satellites