Outer Solar System Perihelion Gap Formation Through Interactions with a Hypothetical Distant Giant Planet

TL;DR

This study investigates the origin of a perihelion gap in the outer solar system, proposing that interactions with a hypothetical distant giant planet, Planet X, can explain the gap's formation and the distribution of minor planet populations.

Contribution

The paper demonstrates through simulations that a distant giant planet can create the observed perihelion gap and influence minor planet distributions, a novel explanation for this solar system feature.

Findings

The perihelion gap arises from two distinct populations, ETNOs and IOCs.

Simulations with Planet X produce the gap and populations from initial Kuiper Belt-like conditions.

Objects in the gap are predicted to be about 20% as numerous as nearby IOC objects.

Abstract

Among the outer solar system minor planet orbits there is an observed gap in perihelion between roughly 50 and 65 au at eccentricities $e\gtrsim0.65$. Through a suite of observational simulations, we show that the gap arises from two separate populations, the Extreme Trans-Neptunian Objects (ETNOs; perihelia $q\gtrsim40$ au and semimajor axes $a\gtrsim150$ au) and the Inner Oort Cloud objects (IOCs; $q\gtrsim65$ au and $a\gtrsim250$ au), and is very unlikely to result from a realistic single, continuous distribution of objects. We also explore the connection between the perihelion gap and a hypothetical distant giant planet, often referred to as Planet 9 or Planet X, using dynamical simulations. Some simulations containing Planet X produce the ETNOs, the IOCs, and the perihelion gap from a simple Kuiper-Belt-like initial particle distribution over the age of the solar system. The gap forms as particles scattered to high eccentricity by Neptune are captured into secular resonances with Planet X where they cross the gap and oscillate in perihelion and eccentricity over hundreds of kiloyears. Many of these objects reach a minimum perihelia in their oscillation cycle within the IOC region increasing the mean residence time of the IOC region by a factor of approximately five over the gap region. Our findings imply that, in the presence of a massive external perturber, objects within the perihelion gap will be discovered, but that they will be only $\sim20$% as numerous as the nearby IOC population ($65$ au $\lesssim q \lesssim 100$ au).