How the formation of Neptune shapes the Kuiper belt

TL;DR

This study investigates how the early inward migration of Neptune and other giant planets influenced the structure and population of the Kuiper Belt, revealing migration signatures and resonance population dynamics.

Contribution

It provides new insights into how different migration scenarios of Neptune and Uranus shape the Kuiper Belt's resonant and non-resonant populations, including the effects of outward migration.

Findings

Resonant populations can form without planetary migration.

Outward migration of Neptune creates distinctive resonant signatures.

Inclination distribution remains narrower than observed.

Abstract

Inward migration of giant planets is predicted by hydrodynamical simulations during the gas phase of the protoplanetary disc. The phenomenon is also invoked to explain resonant and near-resonant exoplanetary system structures. The early inward migration may also have affected our Solar System and sculpted its different minor planet reservoirs. In this study we explore how the early inward migration of the giant planets shapes the Kuiper Belt. We test different scenarios with only Neptune and Uranus and with all the four giant planets, including also some models with the subsequent outward planetesimal-driven migration of Neptune after the gas dispersal. We find objects populating mean motion resonances even when Neptune and Uranus do not migrate at all or only migrate inwards. When the planets are fixed, planetesimals stick only temporarily to the mean motion resonances, while inwards migration yields a new channel to populate the resonances without invoking convergent migration. In these cases, however, it is hard to populate mean motion resonances that do not cross the planetesimal disc (such as 2:1 and 5:2) and there is a lack of resonant KBOs that cross Neptune's orbit. These Neptune crossers are an unambiguous signature of the outward migration of Neptune. The starting position and the growth rate of Neptune matters for the contamination of the classical Kuiper belt region from neighbouring regions. The eccentricity and inclination space of the hot classicals and the scattered disc region become much more populated when all the giant planets are included. The 5:2 resonance with Neptune becomes increasingly populated with deeper inward migrations of Neptune. The overall inclination distribution, however, is still narrower than from observations, as is generally the case for Kuiper belt population models.