Formation of polar terrestrial circumbinary planets

Abstract

All circumbinary planets currently detected are in orbits that are almost coplanar to the binary orbit. While misaligned circumbinary planets are more difficult to detect, observations of polar aligned circumbinary gas and debris disks around eccentric binaries suggest that polar planet formation may be possible. A polar aligned planet has a stable orbit that is inclined by 90 degrees to the orbital plane of the binary with an angular momentum vector that is aligned to the binary eccentricity vector. With n- body simulations we model polar terrestrial planet formation using hydrodynamic gas disk simulations to motivate the initial particle distribution. Terrestrial planet formation around an eccentric binary is more likely in a polar alignment than in a coplanar alignment. Similar planetary systems form in a polar alignment around an eccentric binary and a coplanar alignment around a circular binary. The polar planetary systems are stable even with the effects of general relativity. Planetary orbits around an eccentric binary exhibit tilt and eccentricity oscillations at all inclinations, however, the oscillations are larger in the coplanar case than the polar case. We suggest that polar aligned terrestrial planets will be found in the future.

8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in ApJL. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2108.09257

References in corpus (24)

• The Transiting Circumbinary Planets Kepler-34 and Kepler-35
• On the Location of the Snow Line in a Protoplanetary Disk
• Hybrid Symplectic Integrators for Planetary Dynamics
• Warp diffusion in accretion discs: a numerical investigation
• Planets Transiting Non-Eclipsing Binaries
• Misaligned gas discs around eccentric black-hole binaries and implications for the final-parsec problem
• Terrestrial Planet Formation Surrounding Close Binary Stars
• Polar alignment of a protoplanetary disk around an eccentric binary
• TOI-1338: TESS' First Transiting Circumbinary Planet
• A circumbinary protoplanetary disc in a polar configuration
• Inclination Evolution of Protoplanetary Disks Around Eccentric Binaries
• Tidal Torques on Misaligned Disks in Binary Systems
• High Inclination Planets in Multistellar Systems
• Linear Analysis of the Evolution of Nearly Polar Low Mass Circumbinary Discs
• Secular Dynamics of an Exterior Test Particle: The Inverse Kozai and Other Eccentricity-Inclination Resonances
• Alignment of a circumbinary disc around an eccentric binary with application to KH 15D
• Polar planets around highly eccentric binaries are the most stable
• The Effect of Planets Beyond the Ice Line on the Accretion of Volatiles by Habitable-Zone Rocky Planets
• Efficient Dust Ring Formation in Misaligned Circumbinary Discs
• Flyby-induced misalignments in planet-hosting discs
• The inverse Lidov-Kozai resonance for an outer test particle due to an eccentric perturber
• Distinguishing Polar and Co-planar Circumbinary Exoplanets by Eclipsing Timing Variations
• The binary mass ratios of circumbinary planet hosts
• Terrestrial planet formation in a circumbinary disc around a coplanar binary

Cited by in corpus (7)

• The eclipse of the V773 Tau B circumbinary disk
• A radial limit on polar circumbinary orbits from general relativity
• Polar alignment of a massive retrograde circumbinary disc around an eccentric binary
• Misaligned circumbinary disks as efficient progenitors of interstellar asteroids
• Misalignment of terrestrial circumbinary planets as an indicator of their formation mechanism
• Coplanar circumbinary planets can be unstable to large tilt oscillations in the presence of an inner polar planet
• Orbital stability of two circumbinary planets around misaligned eccentric binaries