Kozai-Lidov cycles towards the limit of circumbinary planets

David V. Martin, Amaury H. M. J. Triaud
(Submitted on 22 Sep 2015)

In this paper we answer a simple question: can a misaligned circumbinary planet induce Kozai-Lidov cycles on an inner stellar binary? We use known analytic equations to analyse the behaviour of the Kozai-Lidov effect as the outer mass is made small. We demonstrate a significant departure from the traditional symmetry, critical angles and amplitude of the effect. Aside from massive planets on near-polar orbits, circumbinary planetary systems are devoid of Kozai-Lidov cycles. This has positive implications for the existence of highly misaligned circumbinary planets: an observationally unexplored and theoretically important parameter space.

Comments: Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters. 5 pages
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
Cite as: arXiv:1509.06498 [astro-ph.EP]
(or arXiv:1509.06498v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
Submission history
From: David Martin V
[v1] Tue, 22 Sep 2015 08:26:51 GMT (420kb,D)
http://arxiv.org/abs/1509.06498