Giant planet dynamical evolution in binary star systems

Abstract

The growing population of planets discovered in orbit around one stellar component of a binary system has diverse eccentricities. These discoveries raise the question of their formation and long-term evolution because the stellar companion can strongly affect the planet formation process. In this work, by means of a symplectic integrator designed for binary star systems, we study the dynamical influence of a wide binary companion on the evolution of giant planets during their migration in the protoplanetary disk and their long-term evolution after the dispersal of the disk. In particular, we highlight the importance of the Lidov-Kozai resonance for highly inclined binary companions.
In the first part, the effects of the disk gravitational potential and the disk nodal precession induced by the binary companion are discussed. In the second part, the mean motion resonance captures of the planets during the migration phase are studied. We finally show how our work can explain several features of the detected circumprimary planets, such as the high eccentricities and the spin-orbit misalignment.

Date of Award	28 Jun 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Namur
Sponsors	FSR-FNRS
Supervisor	Anne-Sophie Libert (Supervisor), Anne Lemaitre (President), Aurélien Crida (Jury), Sean N. Raymond (Jury), Jean Teyssandier (Jury) & Kleomenis Tsiganis (Jury)