Dynamics of "jumping" Trojans: perturbative treatment

TL;DR

This paper investigates the long-term dynamics of 'jumping' Trojans, asteroids that switch libration points, using a perturbative approach within the restricted planar elliptical three-body problem.

Contribution

It introduces a double averaging method to derive evolutionary equations that analyze transitions between different libration regimes of 'jumping' Trojans.

Findings

Derived equations explain transitions between libration points.

Identified conditions under which 'jumping' occurs.

Provided a framework for long-term dynamical analysis.

Abstract

The term "jumping" Trojan was introduced by Tsiganis et al. (2000) in their studies of long-term dynamics exhibited by the asteroid (1868) Thersites, which had been observed to jump from librations around L4 to librations around L5. Another example of a "jumping" Trojan was found by Connors et al. (2011): librations of the asteroid 2010 TK7 around the Earth's libration point L4 preceded by its librations around L5. We explore the dynamics of "jumping" Trojans under the scope of the restricted planar elliptical three-body problem. Via double numerical averaging we construct evolutionary equations, which allow analyzing transitions between the orbital motion regimes.