2001/01/31 by Gregory Laughlin, John Chambers, John E. Chambers · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Scientific Research and Discoveries #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/319847
13 pages, including 4 figures and 3 tables Accepted by Astrophyiscal Journal Letters
arxiv created 2001/03/27 · openalex publication_date 2001/04/10 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
We show that short-term perturbations among massive planets in multiple planet systems can result in radial velocity variations of the central star that differ substantially from velocity variations derived assuming the planets are executing independent Keplerian motions. We discuss two fitting methods that can lead to an improved dynamical description of multiple planet systems. In the first method, the osculating orbital elements are determined via a Levenberg-Marquardt minimization scheme driving an N -body integrator. The second method is an improved analytic model in which orbital elements are allowed to vary according to a simple model for resonant interactions between the planets. Both of these methods can determine the true masses for the planets by eliminating the sin i degeneracy inherent in fits that assume independent Keplerian motions. We apply our fitting methods to the GJ 876 radial velocity data and argue that the mass factors for the two planets are likely in the 1.25-2.0 range.