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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Two-stage disruption of resonant chains

  • Nick Choksi1
  • Yoram Lithwick2,3
  • Eugene Chiang4,5
  • Rixin Li4
5 affiliations
  1. 1Division of Geological and Planetary Science, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA 91101 ,
  2. 2Northwestern University Department of Physics, and Astronomy, , Evanston, IL 60202 ,
  3. 3Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration & Research in Astrophysics , Evanston, IL 60202 ,
  4. 4Theoretical Astrophysics Center, and Center for Integrative Planetary Science Department of Astronomy, , University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 ,
  5. 5University of California Department of Earth and Planetary Science, , Berkeley, CA 94720 ,
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Abstract

TESSis enabling the discovery of transiting planets around young stars. These observations suggest that most close-in planets were born in chains of mean-motion resonances that break on a characteristic timescale of order 100 Myr. This observation is surprising because the same dissipative forces that capture planets into resonance render their orbits long-term stable. We explore a two-stage disruption scenario for resonant chains of super-Earths. First, the chains have their (free) eccentricities excited by some mechanism. We show that any such mechanism that seeds eccentricities of a few percent sets in motion a second stage of dynamical instability on a ~100 Myr timescale. A possible stage-one mechanism is the accretion of a handful of Mercury-sized bodies totaling a few percent of the planetary system mass, which excites the requisite eccentricities and triggers a stage two that reproduces the observed decline in the incidence of resonance. Impacts from such bodies can also explain why some young systems have period ratios narrow of commensurability. We sketch how these impactors may have grown out of debris left over from an earlier epoch of planet formation. We also identify two new trends in the observational data: a decline in multiplicity on the same timescale as the decline in the incidence of resonance, and an increase in the occupation of resonances with multiplicity.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{choksi2026twostage,
  title = {{Two-stage disruption of resonant chains}},
  author = {Nick Choksi and Yoram Lithwick and Eugene Chiang and Rixin Li},
  journal = {Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1093/mnras/stag1884},
  url = {https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag1884/8865295},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Two-stage disruption of resonant chains
AU  - Nick Choksi
AU  - Yoram Lithwick
AU  - Eugene Chiang
AU  - Rixin Li
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/05
JO  - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
DO  - 10.1093/mnras/stag1884
UR  - https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag1884/8865295
AB  - TESSis enabling the discovery of transiting planets around young stars. These observations suggest that most close-in planets were born in chains of mean-motion resonances that break on a characteristic timescale of order 100 Myr. This observation is surprising because the same dissipative forces that capture planets into resonance render their orbits long-term stable. We explore a two-stage disruption scenario for resonant chains of super-Earths. First, the chains have their (free) eccentricities excited by some mechanism. We show that any such mechanism that seeds eccentricities of a few percent sets in motion a second stage of dynamical instability on a ~100 Myr timescale. A possible stage-one mechanism is the accretion of a handful of Mercury-sized bodies totaling a few percent of the planetary system mass, which excites the requisite eccentricities and triggers a stage two that reproduces the observed decline in the incidence of resonance. Impacts from such bodies can also explain why some young systems have period ratios narrow of commensurability. We sketch how these impactors may have grown out of debris left over from an earlier epoch of planet formation. We also identify two new trends in the observational data: a decline in multiplicity on the same timescale as the decline in the incidence of resonance, and an increase in the occupation of resonances with multiplicity.
SN  - 0035-8711
SN  - 1365-2966
ER  -