Dissertation
Exploring the evolution of planetary systems within stellar open clusters
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Drexel University
Sep 2020
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00000273
Abstract
To fully understand the diverse population of exoplanets, we must study their early lives within open clusters, the birthplace of most stars with masses >0.5M_[Sun] (including those currently in the field). Indeed, when we observe planets within clustered environments, we notice highly eccentric and odd systems that suggest the importance of dynamical pathways created by interactions with additional bodies (as in the case of HD 285507b). However, it has proven difficult to investigate these effects, as many current numerical solvers for the multi-scale N-body problem are simplified and limited in scope. To remedy this, we aim to create a physically complete computational solution to explore the role of stellar close encounters and interplanetary interactions in producing the observed exoplanet populations for both open cluster stars and field stars. We present a new code, TYCHO, which employs a variety of different computational techniques, including multiple N-body integration methods, close encounter handling, modified Monte Carlo scattering experiments, and a variety of empirically informed initial conditions. We discuss the methodology in detail, and its implementation within the AMUSE software framework. Approximately 1% of our systems are promptly disrupted by star-star encounters contributing to the rogue planets occurrence rate. Additionally, we find that close encounters which perturb long-period planets lead to 38.3% of solar-system-like planetary systems becoming long-term unstable. Additionally, we discuss improvements to TYCHO to leverage secular integration for multi-encounter stars and its use in validating observational results via planet-planet interactions.
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Details
- Title
- Exploring the evolution of planetary systems within stellar open clusters
- Creators
- Joseph P. Glaser
- Contributors
- Stephen L. W. McMillan (Advisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- xi, 97 pages
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- College of Arts and Sciences; Physics; Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 991014695246804721