Normal forms for the Laplace resonance

TL;DR

This paper develops a Hamiltonian normal form approach to analyze the Laplace resonance, identifying equilibrium classes and libration widths, with applications to systems like the Galilean moons and GJ-876 exoplanetary system.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive normal form framework for Laplace resonance systems, revealing different equilibrium classes and libration characteristics.

Findings

Two classes of stable equilibria identified

Normal form accurately predicts libration widths

Good agreement with numerical simulations

Abstract

We describe a comprehensive model for systems locked in the Laplace resonance. The framework is based on the simplest possible dynamical structure provided by the Keplerian problem perturbed by the resonant coupling truncated at second order in the eccentricities. The reduced Hamiltonian, constructed by a transformation to resonant coordinates, is then submitted to a suitable ordering of the terms and to the study of its equilibria. Henceforth, resonant normal forms are computed. The main result is the identification of two different classes of equilibria. In the first class, only one kind of stable equilibrium is present: the paradigmatic case is that of the Galilean system. In the second class, three kinds of stable equilibria are possible and at least one of them is characterised by a high value of the forced eccentricity for the `first planet': here the paradigmatic case is the exo-planetary system GJ-876, in which the combination of libration centers admits triple conjunctions otherwise not possible in the Galilean case. The normal form obtained by averaging with respect to the free eccentricity oscillations, describes the libration of the Laplace argument for arbitrary amplitudes and allows us to determine the libration width of the resonance. The agreement of the analytic predictions with the numerical integration of the toy models is very good.