Evolution of a disc-planet system with a binary companion on an inclined orbit

Abstract

We study orbital inclination changes associated with the precession of a disc-planet system that occurs through gravitational interaction with a binary companion on an inclined orbit.We investigate whether this scenario can account for giant planets on close orbits highly inclined to the stellar equatorial plane.We obtain conditions for maintaining approximate coplanarity and test them with SPH-simulations. For parameters of interest, the system undergoes approximate rigid body precession with modest warping while the planets migrate inwards. Because of pressure forces, disc self-gravity is not needed to maintain the configuration. We consider a disc and a single planet for different initial inclinations of the binary orbit to the mid-plane of the combined system and a system of three planets for which migration leads to dynamical instability that reorders the planets. As the interaction is dominated by the time averaged quadrupole component of the binary's perturbing potential, results for a circular orbit can be scaled to apply to eccentric orbits. The system responded adiabatically when changes to binary orbital parameters occurred on time-scales exceeding the orbital period. Accordingly inclination changes are maintained under its slow removal. Thus, the scenario for generating high-inclination planetary orbits studied here, is promising. © 2014 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.