Dynamical formation of trans-Neptunian detached objects near mean motion resonances with Neptune

Abstract

More than one thousand transneptunian objects are currently known, but it is estimated that this number can be as big as hundreds of millions. The Kuiper Belt contains at least four dynamically distinct regions of which the most recently determined is the extended scattered disk (ESD), whose objects are also called detached objects. One of the objects belonging to this region, 2004XR190, has a peculiar orbit with small eccentricity and high inclination, suggesting that some dynamical process was responsible for the excitation of the latter element. Gomes (2011) was able to numerically reproduce orbits similar to those of 2004XR190 as the the result of scattering of the primordial planetesimals disk responsible for the migration of the giant planets in the early solar system. Through interactions between resonances (Kozai+MMR) the particle could be detached from resonance after experiencing a low eccentricity mode resonance. In this project we intend to study, through numerical and semi-analytical methods, those mechanisms such as mean motion resonances (MMR), Kozai resonance, and the coupling between both. In principle, the same mechanism that produced 2004XR190 is capable of generating bodies close to other MMR's. Here we intend to study this possibility in order to make predictions of possible orbits for bodies not yet observed in the Kuiper Belt.