Orbital evolution of potentially habitable planets of tidally interacting binary stars

TL;DR

This study models the coupled stellar and tidal evolution of short-period binary stars to understand how their orbital changes impact the stability and habitability of circumbinary planets over time.

Contribution

It introduces an expanded model including mass concentration evolution, revealing that orbital stability limits for planets occur much later than previously thought, influencing habitability assessments.

Findings

Maximum stability limit occurs ~100 Myr after planet formation.

Early stellar-tidal evolution likely removes CBPs from short-period binaries.

Habitable zone stability depends on binary mass and eccentricity.

Abstract

We simulate the coupled stellar and tidal evolution of short-period binary stars (orbital period $P_{orb} \lsim$8 days) to investigate the orbital oscillations, instellation cycles, and orbital stability of circumbinary planets (CBPs). We consider two tidal models and show that both predict an outward-then-inward evolution of the binary's semi-major axis $a_{bin}$ and eccentricity $e_{bin}$. This orbital evolution drives a similar evolution of the minimum CBP semi-major axis for orbital stability. By expanding on previous models to include the evolution of the mass concentration, we show that the maximum in the CBP orbital stability limit tends to occur 100 Myr after the planets form, a factor of 100 longer than previous investigations. This result provides further support for the hypothesis that the early stellar-tidal evolution of binary stars has removed CBPs from short-period binaries. We then apply the models to Kepler-47 b, a CBP orbiting close to its host stars' stability limit, to show that if the binary's initial $e_{bin} \gsim$0.24, the planet would have been orbiting within the instability zone in the past and probably wouldn't have survived. For stable, hypothetical cases in which the stability limit does not reach a planet's orbit, we find that the amplitudes of $a_{bin}$ and $e_{bin}$ oscillations can damp by up to 10\% and 50\%, respectively. Finally, we consider equal-mass stars with $P_{orb} =$ 7.5 days and compare the HZ to the stability limit. We find that for stellar masses $\lsim0.12M_{\odot}$, the HZ is completely unstable, even if the binary orbit is circular. For $e_{bin} \lsim$0.5, that limit increases to $0.17M_{\odot}$, and the HZ is partially destabilized for stellar masses up to $0.45M_{\odot}$. These results may help guide searches for potentially habitable CBPs, as well as characterize their evolution and likelihood to support life after they are found.