Free Inclinations for Transneptunian Objects in the Main Kuiper Belt

TL;DR

This study computes and analyzes the free inclinations of transneptunian objects in the Kuiper Belt, revealing a predominantly co-planar primordial population with a broader hot component, using improved methods for accuracy.

Contribution

The paper introduces an improved method using an averaged Hamiltonian to accurately compute free inclinations of TNOs, surpassing the limitations of secular theory near resonances.

Findings

96% of classical TNOs have conserved free inclinations within 1° over 4 Gyr

Distribution supports a cold primordial population with a hot, dynamically excited overlay

Method enhances the accuracy of inclination studies in the Kuiper Belt

Abstract

There is a complex inclination structure present in the transneptunian object (TNO) orbital distribution in the main classical belt region (between orbital semimajor axes of 39 and 48 au). The long-term gravitational effects of the giant planets make TNO orbits precess, but non-resonant objects maintain a nearly constant 'free' inclination ($I_\text{free}$) with respect to a local forced precession pole. Because of the likely cosmogonic importance of the distribution of this quantity, we tabulate free inclinations for all main-belt TNOs, each individually computed using barycentric orbital elements with respect to each object's local forcing pole. We show that the simplest method, based on the Laplace-Lagrange secular theory, is unable to give correct forcing poles for objects near the $\nu_{18}$ secular resonance, resulting in poorly conserved $I_\text{free}$ values in much of the main belt. We thus instead implemented an averaged Hamiltonian to obtain the expected nodal precession for each TNO, yielding significantly more accurate free inclinations for non-resonant objects. For the vast majority (96\%) of classical belt TNOs, these $I_\text{free}$ values are conserved to $<1^\circ$ over 4 Gyr numerical simulations, demonstrating the advantage of using this well-conserved quantity in studies of the TNO population and its primordial inclination profile; our computed distributions only reinforce the idea of a very co-planar surviving 'cold' primordial population, overlain by a large $I$-width implanted 'hot' population.