Interacting Binaries with Eccentric Orbits: Secular Orbital Evolution Due to Conservative Mass Transfer

Orbital evolution for extreme mass-ratio binaries: conservative self forces

The conservative dephasing effects of gravitational self forces for extreme mass-ratio inspirals are studied. Both secular and non-secular conservative effects may have a significant effect on LISA waveforms that is independent of the mass ratio of the system. Such effects need to be included in generated waveforms to allow for accurate gravitational wave astronomy that requires integration tim...

Secular Evolution of Planetary Systems in Binaries

The orbital eccentricity of a single planet in a stellar binary system with a sufficiently large mutual inclination angle is known to oscillate on a secular timescale through the Kozai mechanism. We have investigated the effects of the Kozai mechanism on double-planet systems in binaries. The evolutionary sequence of a pair of planets under the influence of a binary companion is fairly complex....

Eccentric orbits and QPOs in neutron star X-ray binaries

We investigate the suggestion that the frequencies of the kilohertz and other QPOs in the emission from neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries are generated by geodesic motion of gas clumps around the star. First we assume, following previous work, that the dominant frequencies produced by such motions are the azimuthal frequency ν K , the apsidal precession frequency ν AP , and the first ove...

Three-dimensional Orbital Evolution of Asteroid Due to the Sweeping Secular

Secular Orbital Evolution of Compact Planet Systems

Recent observations have shown that at least some close-in exoplanets maintain eccentric orbits despite tidal circularization timescales that are typically much shorter than stellar ages. We explore gravitational interactions with a more distant planetary companion as a possible cause of these unexpected nonzero eccentricities. For simplicity, we focus on the evolution of a planar two-planet sy...