Stability of orbits within the Disc around the binary system BD+31°643

BRUNINI, A.

PLANETARY AND SPACE SCIENCE

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 1998 vol. 47 p. 175 - 180

0032-0633

In this paper, we analyze the stability of motion of planetary bodies orbiting binary stars, with special emphasis on possible planetary bodies within the recently discovered disk around BD+31, 643°. In accordance with previous estimates, we found that beyond ~4 times the mean orbital separation of the components of the binary from the center of mass of the system, the presence of planetary embryos within circumbinary discs is possible. Our results also support that the central depletion observed in the structure of the disc around BD+31, 643° is due to tidal interaction with the binary. We have also investigated the dynamical stability of the disk against stellar encounters within a dense environment such as the young star cluster IC 348 where the binary system is immersed. We found that the inner portion of the disk remains almost unaffected by stellar perturbations. On the contrary, the outer region is strongly influenced by passing stars, suggesting that the observed disk is limited in extension by external perturbations. The available observational data indicates that the orbit of the binary is rather eccentric. This fact and the observed shift between the disc plane and the orbital plane of the binary, casts some doubts about the origin of the dust disk.