Ballantyne, H.A., Espaas, T., Norgrove, B.Z. et al. (6 more authors) (2021) Long-term stability of planets in and around binary stars. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 507 (3). pp. 4507-4520. ISSN 0035-8711
Abstract
Planets are observed to orbit the component star(s) of stellar binary systems on so-called circumprimary or circumsecondary orbits, as well as around the entire binary system on so-called circumbinary orbits. Depending on the orbital parameters of the binary system a planet will be dynamically stable if it orbits within some critical separation of the semimajor axis in the circumprimary case, or beyond some critical separation for the circumbinary case. We present N-body simulations of star-forming regions that contain populations of primordial binaries to determine the fraction of binary systems that can host stable planets at various semimajor axes, and how this fraction of stable systems evolves over time. Dynamical encounters in star-forming regions can alter the orbits of some binary systems, which can induce long-term dynamical instabilities in the planetary system and can even change the size of the habitable zone(s) of the component stars. However, the overall fraction of binaries that can host stable planetary systems is not greatly affected by either the assumed binary population, or the density of the star-forming region. Instead, the critical factor in determining how many stable planetary systems exist in the Galaxy is the stellar binary fraction – the more stars that are born as singles in stellar nurseries, the higher the fraction of stable planetary systems.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 The Author(s). This is an author-produced version of a paper subsequently published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | binaries: general; stars: formation; planetary systems; kinematics and dynamics; planets and satellites: dynamical evolution and stability |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Physics and Astronomy (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number The Royal Society DH150108; 13178; CEC19\100159 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 09 Sep 2021 13:40 |
Last Modified: | 10 Mar 2022 14:35 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press (OUP) |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/mnras/stab2324 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:178040 |