Planetary System Evolution: Giant Planet Eccentricity & Nonconservative N-body Dynamics

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• David Tsang (University of Maryland)
• Wednesday 22 June 2016, 14:30-15:30
• Physics West 103.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Ilya Mandel.

I will discuss two topics relevant to the evolution of young planetary systems: the eccentricity evolution of giant planets while they are still embedded in their natal disks, and a new approach to N-body dynamics that can be used to study a system during later times. In the first part of the talk I will show how entropy gradients within the disk can modify the eccentricity distribution of giant exoplanets, which may bear the imprint of the disk structure as a function of metallicity. In the second part, I will briefly review the principles behind symplectic integrators for conservative N-body dynamics. Utilizing a newly developed nonconservative action principle, I will demonstrate how this allows for the formulation of nonconservative (“Slimplectic”) variational integrators: numerical integrators with the long-term accuracy properties of symplectic integrators but for systems that have dissipation or other nonconservative physics (e.g. tides, radiation reaction, drag), allowing for long-term numerical study of planetary systems where dissipative interactions can play an important dynamical role.

This talk is part of the Astrophysics Talks Series series.

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• Astrophysics Talks Series
• Bham Talks
• Physics West 103
• What's on in Physics?

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