Secular evolution of resonant small bodies: semi-analytical approach for arbitrary eccentricities in the coplanar case

TL;DR

This paper develops a semi-analytical model to study the long-term evolution of small bodies in mean motion resonances with planets, accommodating arbitrary eccentricities in a coplanar setting, and applies it to the 2:1 resonance and Planet 9 hypothesis.

Contribution

It introduces a novel semi-analytical approach that calculates the averaged resonant disturbing function numerically for arbitrary eccentricities, enabling detailed secular evolution predictions.

Findings

Identified four ACR families in the 2:1 MMR, including symmetric and asymmetric types.

Validated the model's predictions with numerical integrations showing consistent secular variations.

Explored large eccentricity excursions in 3:1 and 3:2 MMRs and assessed Planet 9's influence on TNOs.

Abstract

We study the secular evolution of a particle in deep mean motion resonance (MMR) with a planet in the planar elliptic restricted three body problem. We do not consider any restriction neither in the planet's eccentricity $e_p$ nor in the particle's eccentricity $e$. The methodology used is based on a semi-analytical model that consists on calculating the averaged resonant disturbing function numerically, assuming for this that in the resonant scale of time all the orbital elements of the particle are constant. In order to obtain the secular evolution inside the MMR, we make use of the adiabatic invariance principle, assuming a zero-amplitude resonant libration. We construct two-dimensional surfaces (called $\mathcal{H}$ surfaces) in the three-dimensional space $(\sigma, e, \varpi)$ that allow us to predict the secular evolution of these three variables. The 2:1 MMR is used as example to show some results. We found four apsidal corotation resonance (ACR) families, two symmetric and two asymmetric. One of the symmetric families exists for almost any $e_p$ value. The other one for $e_p>0.3$ and the asymmetric ones for $e_p>0.44$. We corroborate the secular variations in $e$ and $\varpi$ predicted by the model through numerical integrations even when the initial conditions are displaced from those ACR. Some peculiar examples are presented for the 3:1 and 3:2 MMR showing large excursions in eccentricity. As an application, the Planet 9 is investigated as a possible responsible of high eccentric distant TNOs.