The effect of orbital damping during planet migration on the inclination and eccentricity distributions of Neptunian Trojans

Abstract

We explore planetary migration scenarios for the formation of high-inclination Neptunian Trojans (NTs) and how they are affected by the planetary migration of Neptune and Uranus. If Neptune's and Uranus's eccentricity and inclination were damped during planetary migration, then their eccentricities and inclinations were higher prior and during the migration than their current values. Using test particle integrations, we study the stability of primordial NTs, objects that were initially Trojans with Neptune prior to migration. We also study trans-Neptunian objects captured into resonance with Neptune and becoming NTs during planet migration. We find that most primordial NTs were unstable and lost if eccentricity and inclination damping took place during planetary migration. With damping, secular resonances with Neptune can increase a low eccentricity and inclination population of trans-Neptunian objects increasing the probability that they are captured into 1: 1 resonance with Neptune, becoming high-inclination NTs. We suggest that the resonant trapping scenario is a promising and more effective mechanism to explain the origin of NTs, which is particularly effective if Uranus and Neptune experienced eccentricity and inclination damping during planetary migration.