Spring 2004

AST 3100 - Minicourse on planetary dynamics

One hour per lecture, twice a week, continuing for 4 weeks.
    tentative time slots: Jan 12-Feb 6th,   T. noon-1; Th. 3-4, Rm 1318A
 
I will start by posing a central problem -- a real extra-solar planetary system which contains a few unsolved puzzles. I then lecture on the following aspects of planetary dynamics: 1) general orbital discriptions; 2) disturbing function; 3) mean-motion resonances; 4) resonance overlap & chaos; 5) secular interactions; 6) simple disk-planet interactions. Based on these lectures, the students will perform calculations to understand the cause of some of the behaviour of this planetary system.  The goal of the course is to enable students to undertake publishable research in the field.
 
Lecture 1: intro & outline
Lecture 2: orbital elements, perturbed orbits, precession
Lecture 3: Hamiltonian, numerical methods (symplectic)
Lecture 4: disturbing function
Lecture 5: secular interaction
Lecture 6: mean-motion resonance
Lecture 7: resonance width, chaos. stability
Lecture 8: group discussion

References (more to come)
       Murray & Dermott   Solary System Dynamics, 1999, Cambridge
        Holman & Wiegert, ApJ, 1999, 117, 621
        Tremaine,     Frontiers of Astrophysics, Rossland Centenary symposium,1994,
        Saha & Tremaine, AJ, 1992, 104, 1633
        Beust, A&A, 2003, 400, 1129
        Chambers, Quintana, Duncan & Lissauer, 2002, AJ, 123, 2884
        Wisdom & Holman, 1991, AJ, 102, 1528
        Konacki & Wolszczan 2003, ApJ, 591, 147 (and theoretical papers cited)


Location of the SWIFT code and the HJS package


Maintained by Yanqin Wu
Questions and Comments sent to:  wu_at_astro.utoronto.ca