2022-03-25 Abstract
Title: Dancing with a binary: orbital dynamics and stability of circumbinary planets
Speaker: Cheng Chen (UNLV)
Date: Mar 25 at 14:30
Location: R124, Physics Building
Abstract:
Recent observations have revealed that circumbinary disks that are misaligned to the binary orbit could be common in the universe. Dissipation in the disk causes it to move either towards coplanar alignment or polar alignment. In the polar configuration, the disk is perpendicular to the binary orbit with the disc angular momentum vector aligned to the binary eccentricity vector. Since planets form inside disks, circumbinary planets may also form misaligned to the binary orbit. We explore the dynamical evolution and stability of misaligned circumbinary planets. We find that around eccentric binaries, the most stable orbits are those that are close to a polar alignment. Moreover, we find that two circumbinary planets in the same system may result in complicated orbital dynamics and resonances. Our results have implications for circumbinary planet formation and evolution and will be helpful for understanding future circumbinary planet observations.