A Lopsided Outer Solar System

Axisymmetric disks of eccentric orbits in near-Keplerian potentials are unstable to an out-of-plane buckling. Recently, Zderic et al. (2020) showed that an idealized disk saturates to a lopsided mode. Here we show that this apsidal clustering also occurs in a primordial scattered disk in the outer s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2021-10
Main Authors: Zderic, Alexander, Tiongco, Maria, Collier, Angela, Wernke, Heather, Generozov, Aleksey, Madigan, Ann-Marie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Clustering
Eccentric orbits
Galactic evolution
Gravitational effects
Orbital mechanics
Outer solar system
Solar system
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Axisymmetric disks of eccentric orbits in near-Keplerian potentials are unstable to an out-of-plane buckling. Recently, Zderic et al. (2020) showed that an idealized disk saturates to a lopsided mode. Here we show that this apsidal clustering also occurs in a primordial scattered disk in the outer solar system which includes the orbit-averaged gravitational influence of the giant planets. We explain the dynamics using Lynden-Bell (1979)'s mechanism for bar formation in galaxies. We also show surface density and line of sight velocity plots at different times during the instability, highlighting the formation of concentric circles and spiral arms in velocity space.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.2106.09739