Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Polar Alignment Of Massive Retrograde Circumbinary Discs, Charles Abod

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

To understand the observed circumbinary planetary systems, we must first explain the dynamics of the circumbinary discs in which they formed. Observations of circumbinary discs show that misalignments to the binary orbital plane may be common. Here we investigate these systems by exploring the orbital dynamics of three-body systems and circumbinary discs. A test particle orbit around an eccentric binary has two stationary states in which there is no nodal precession: coplanar and polar. Nodal precession of a misaligned test particle orbit centres on one of these stationary states. A low mass circumbinary disc undergoes the same precession and moves …