A dynamical analysis of the Kepler-11 planetary system

TL;DR

This paper re-analyzes the Kepler-11 planetary system using a direct N-body approach, confirming previous findings and revealing complex dynamical structures, resonances, and stability conditions that inform planetary formation theories.

Contribution

It introduces a direct N-body dynamical analysis of Kepler-11, extending prior work by incorporating the entire data set and detailed phase space analysis.

Findings

Outer planet g mass constrained to <30 Earth masses

Mutual inclinations between certain orbits are 1-5 degrees

System stability depends on specific resonant configurations

Abstract

The Kepler-11 star hosts at least six transiting super-Earth planets detected through the precise photometric observations of the Kepler mission (Lissauer et al.). In this paper, we re-analyze the available Kepler data, using the direct N-body approach rather than an indirect TTV method in the discovery paper. The orbital modeling in the realm of the direct approach relies on the whole data set, not only on the mid-transits times. Most of the results in the original paper are confirmed and extended. We constrained the mass of the outermost planet g to less than 30 Earth masses. The mutual inclinations between orbits b and c as well as between orbits d and e are determined with a good precision, in the range of [1,5] degrees. Having several solutions to four qualitative orbital models of the Kepler-11 system, we analyze its global dynamics with the help of dynamical maps. They reveal a sophisticated structure of the phase space, with narrow regions of regular motion. The dynamics are governed by a dense net of three- and four-body mean motion resonances, forming the Arnold web. Overlapping of these resonances is a main source of instability. We found that the Kepler-11 system may be long-term stable only in particular multiple resonant configurations with small relative inclinations. The mass-radius data derived for all companions reveal a clear anti-correlation between the mean density of the planets with their distance from the star. This may reflect the formation and early evolution history of the system.