Dissipative Capture of Planets Into First-Order Mean-Motion Resonances

Abstract

The emergence of orbital resonances among planets is a natural consequence of the early dynamical evolution of planetary systems. While it is well-established that convergent migration is necessary for mean-motion commensurabilities to emerge, recent numerical experiments have shown that the existing adiabatic theory of resonant capture provides an incomplete description of the relevant physics, leading to an erroneous mass scaling in the regime of strong dissipation. In this work, we develop a new model for resonance capture that self-consistently accounts for migration and circularization of planetary orbits, and derive an analytic criterion based upon stability analysis that describes the conditions necessary for the formation of mean-motion resonances. We subsequently test our results against numerical simulations and find satisfactory agreement. Our results elucidate the critical role played by adiabaticity and resonant stability in shaping the orbital architectures of planetary systems during the nebular epoch, and provide a valuable tool for understanding their primordial dynamical evolution.

12 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJL

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Cited by in corpus (3)

• When, where, and how many planets end up in first-order resonances?
• Resonance Capture and Stability Analysis for Planet Pairs under Type I Disk Migration
• The Dynamical History of the Kepler-221 Planet System