Planetary Migration and Eccentricity and Inclination Resonances in Extrasolar Planetary Systems

TL;DR

This paper explores how differential planetary migration can lead to various mean-motion resonances, including new eccentricity and inclination resonances, depending on migration rates and planetary mass ratios, with implications for understanding observed extrasolar systems.

Contribution

It demonstrates the existence of a new family of 2:1 eccentricity resonances and clarifies conditions for capturing into inclination resonances, highlighting the role of migration rate and mass ratio.

Findings

Fast migration leads to a new family of 2:1 eccentricity resonances.

Inclination resonance capture depends on mass ratio and migration speed.

Eccentricity damping influences resonance entry and system evolution.

Abstract

The differential migration of two planets due to planet-disk interaction can result in capture into the 2:1 eccentricity-type mean-motion resonances. Both the sequence of 2:1 eccentricity resonances that the system is driven through by continued migration and the possibility of a subsequent capture into the 4:2 inclination resonances are sensitive to the migration rate within the range expected for type II migration. If the migration rate is fast, the resonant pair can evolve into a family of 2:1 eccentricity resonances different from those found by Lee (2004). This new family has outer orbital eccentricity e_2 > 0.4-0.5, asymmetric librations of both eccentricity resonance variables, and orbits that intersect if they are exactly coplanar. Although this family exists for an inner-to-outer planet mass ratio m_1/m_2 > 0.2, it is possible to evolve into this family by fast migration only for m_1/m_2 > 2. Thommes and Lissauer (2003) have found that a capture into the 4:2 inclination resonances is possible only for m_1/m_2 < 2. We show that this capture is also possible for m_1/m_2 > 2 if the migration rate is slightly slower than that adopted by Thommes and Lissauer. There is significant theoretical uncertainty in both the sign and the magnitude of the net effect of planet-disk interaction on the orbital eccentricity of a planet. If the eccentricity is damped on a timescale comparable to or shorter than the migration timescale, e_2 may not be able to reach the values needed to enter either the new 2:1 eccentricity resonances or the 4:2 inclination resonances. Thus, if future observations of extrasolar planetary systems were to reveal certain combinations of mass ratio and resonant configuration, they would place a constraint on the strength of eccentricity damping during migration, as well as on the migration rate itself.