Paper: astro-ph/0601609

Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2006 19:15:59 GMT (248kb)

Title: Planets and Asteroids in the gamma Cephei System

Authors: P.E. Verrier (Cambridge), N.W. Evans (Cambridge)

Comments: 10 pages, 14 figures, MNRAS, submitted
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The binary star system gamma Cephei is unusual in that it harbours a stable
giant planet around the larger star at a distance only about a tenth of that of
the stellar separation. Numerical simulations are carried out into the
stability of test particles in the system. This provides possible locations for
additional planets and asteroids. To this end, the region interior to the
planet is investigated in detail and found to permit structured belts of
particles. The region between the planet and the secondary star however shows
almost no stability. The existence of an Edgeworth-Kuiper belt analogue is
found to be a possibility beyond 65 au from the barycentre of the system,
although it shows almost no structural features. Finally, the region around the
secondary star is studied for the first time. Here, a zone of stability is seen
out to 1.5 au for a range of inclinations. In addition, a ten Jupiter-mass
planet is shown to remain stable about this smaller star, with the habitability
and observational properties of such an object being discussed.

\\ ( http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0601609 , 248kb)