Main-sequence systems: orbital stability in stellar binaries

TL;DR

This paper reviews the orbital stability of planets in stellar binary systems, analyzing semi-analytical, N-body, and machine learning methods to understand conditions for planetary stability.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of methods and results on planetary orbital stability in binary systems, including recent machine learning approaches.

Findings

Stability criteria differ for S-type and P-type planetary orbits.

Machine learning methods offer new insights into long-term stability.

Semi-analytical and N-body simulations complement each other in stability analysis.

Abstract

The majority of star formation results in binaries or higher multiple systems, and planets in such systems are constrained to a limited range of orbital parameters in order to remain stable against perturbations from stellar companions. Many planets have been discovered in such multiple systems (such as stellar binaries), and understanding their stability is important in exoplanet searches and characterization. In this chapter, we focus on the orbital stability of planets in stellar binaries. We review key results based on semi-analytical secular (long term) methods, as well as results based on N-body simulations and more recent Machine Learning methods. We discuss planets orbiting one of the stellar binary components (S-type) and those orbiting both stars (P-type) separately.