Irregular Fixation: I. Fixed points and librating orbits of the Brown Hamiltonian

TL;DR

This paper analytically studies fixed points and librating orbits in hierarchical triple systems considering the Brown Hamiltonian, revealing complex stability structures and implications for astrophysical systems.

Contribution

It derives modified fixed points including the Brown Hamiltonian and analyzes librating orbits, expanding understanding of long-term orbital evolution in hierarchical triples.

Findings

Analytical fixed points including Brown Hamiltonian derived.

Numerical discovery of fractal-like stability and libration zones.

Retrograde orbits exhibit greater stability and libration regions.

Abstract

In hierarchical triple systems, the inner binary is slowly perturbed by a distant companion, giving rise to large-scale oscillations in eccentricity and inclination, known as von-Zeipel-Lidov-Kozai (ZLK) oscillations. Stable systems with a mild hierarchy, where the period ratio is not too small, require an additional corrective term, known as the Brown Hamiltonian, to adequately account for their long-term evolution. Although the Brown Hamiltonian has been used to accurately describe the highly eccentric systems on circulating orbits where the periapse completes a complete revolution, the analysis near its elliptical fixed points had been overlooked. We derive analytically the modified fixed points including the Brown Hamiltonian and analyse its librating orbits (where the periapse motion is limited in range). We compare our result to the direct three-body integrations of millions of orbits and discuss the regimes of validity. We numerically discover the regions of orbital instability, allowed and forbidden librating zones with a complex, fractal, structure. The retrograde orbits, where the mutual inclination is $\iota > 90\ \rm deg$, are more stable and allowed to librate for larger areas of the parameter space. We find numerical fits for the librating-circulating boundary. Finally, we discuss the astrophysical implications for systems of satellites, stars and compact objects. In a companion paper (paper II), we apply our formalism to the orbits of irregular satellites around giant planets.