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Session: Heliophysics and the Solar System

Name: Dr. Nikolaos Georgakarakos (New York University Abu Dhabi)
Coauthors: No coauthors were included.
Type: Oral
Title: An explanation for the number asymmetry between the L4 and L5 Jupiter Trojans.
Abstract:

More than 10000 Jupiter Trojans have been detected so far. They are moving around the L4 and L5 triangular Lagrangian points of the Sun-Jupiter system and their distributions can provide important clues about the early evolution of the Solar System. A longstanding problem regarding those two groups of asteroids is their number asymmetry, i.e. the L4 swarm being more populous than the L5 one. In this work, we explore two scenarios that may explain that asymmetry. In the first one, Jupiter undergoes a fast outward migration caused by the giant planet instability in the early Solar System. In the second scenario, we investigate the early evolution of Jupiter and its two Trojan swarms by introducing the possible perturbations of a free floating planet (FFP) invading the Solar System. We find that both scenarios could potentially explain the unbiased number asymmetry of N4/N5 ~ 1.6 for the known Jupiter Trojans. The uncertainties of the system parameters, such as Jupiter's eccentricity and inclination as well as the inclination distribution of Jupiter Trojans are also taken into account. Regarding the FFP scenario, we propose that the FFP should have a mass of at least of a few tens of Earth masses and its orbital inclination is allowed to be as high as 40 degrees.