We investigated the apsidal motion for the multi-planet systems. In the simulations, we found that the two planets of HD 37124, HD 12661, 47 Uma and HD 82943 separately undergo apsidal alignment or antialignment. But the companions of GJ 876 and $upsilon$ And are only in apsidal lock about $0^{circ}$. Moreover, we obtained the criteria with Laplace-Lagrange secular theory to discern whether a pair of planets for a certain system are in libration or circulation.
We carry out numerical simulations to explore the dynamical evolution of the HD 82943 and HD 37124 planetary systems,which both have two Jupiter-like planets. By simulating various planetary configurations in the neighborhood of the fitting orbits, we find three mechanisms to maintain the stability of these systems: For HD 82943,we find that the 2:1 mean motion resonance can act as the first mechanism for all the stable orbits. The second mechanism is the alignment of the periastron of the two planets of HD 82943 system. In the paper,we show one case is simultaneously maintained by the two mechanisms. Additionally,we also use the corresponding analytical models successfully to explain the different numerical results for the system. The third mechanism is the Kozai resonance which takes place in the mutual highly orbits of HD 37124. In the simulations,we discover that the argument of periastron $omega$ of the inner planet librates about $90^{circ}$ or $270^{circ}$ for the whole time span. The Kozai mechanism can explain the stable configuration of large eccentricity of the inner planet.
We perform numerical simulations to explore the dynamical evolution of the HD 82943 planetary system. By simulating diverse planetary configurations, we find two mechanisms of stabilizing the system: the 2:1 mean motion resonance between the two planets can act as the first mechanism for all stable orbits. The second mechanism is a dynamical antialignment of the apsidal lines of the orbiting planets, which implies that the difference of the periastron longitudes $theta_{3}$ librates about $180^{circ}$ in the simulations. We also use a semi-analytical model to explain the numerical results for the system under study.
We have undertaken a thorough dynamical investigation of five extrasolar planetary systems using extensive numerical experiments. The systems Gl 777 A, HD 72659, Gl 614, 47 Uma and HD 4208 were examined concerning the question of whether they could host terrestrial like planets in their habitable zones (=HZ). First we investigated the mean motion resonances between fictitious terrestrial planets and the existing gas giants in these five extrasolar systems. Then a fine grid of initial conditions for a potential terrestrial planet within the HZ was chosen for each system, from which the stability of orbits was then assessed by direct integrations over a time interval of 1 million years. The computations were carried out using a Lie-series integration method with an adaptive step size control. This integration method achieves machine precision accuracy in a highly efficient and robust way, requiring no special adjustments when the orbits have large eccentricities. The stability of orbits was examined with a determination of the Renyi entropy, estimated from recurrence plots, and with a more straight forward method based on the maximum eccentricity achieved by the planet over the 1 million year integration. Additionally, the eccentricity is an indication of the habitability of a terrestrial planet in the HZ; any value of e>0.2 produces a significant temperature difference on a planets surface between apoapse and periapse. The results for possible stable orbits for terrestrial planets in habitable zones for the five systems are summarized as follows: for Gl 777 A nearly the entire HZ is stable, for 47 Uma, HD 72659 and HD 4208 terrestrial planets can survive for a sufficiently long time, while for Gl 614 our results exclude terrestrial planets moving in stable orbits within the HZ.
An important aspect of searching for exoplanets is understanding the binarity of the host stars. It is particularly important because nearly half of the solar-like stars within our own Milky Way are part of binary or multiple systems. Moreover, the presence of two or more stars within a system can place further constraints on planetary formation, evolution, and orbital dynamics. As part of our survey of almost a hundred host stars, we obtained images at 692 nm and 880 nm bands using the Differential Speckle Survey Instrument (DSSI) at the Gemini-North Observatory. From our survey, we detect stellar companions to HD 2638 and HD 164509. The stellar companion to HD 2638 has been previously detected, but the companion to HD 164509 is a newly discovered companion. The angular separation for HD 2638 is $0.512 pm 0.002arcsec$ and for HD 164509 is $0.697 pm 0.002arcsec$. This corresponds to a projected separation of $25.6 pm 1.9$ AU and $36.5 pm 1.9$ AU, respectively. By employing stellar isochrone models, we estimate the mass of the stellar companions of HD 2638 and HD 164509 to be $0.483 pm 0.007$ $M_sun$ and $0.416 pm 0.007$ $M_sun$, respectively, and their effective temperatures to be $3570 pm 8$~K and $3450 pm 7$~K, respectively. These results are consistent with the detected companions being late-type M dwarfs.
We report the detections of two substellar companions orbiting around evolved intermediate-mass stars from precise Doppler measurements at Subaru Telescope and Okayama Astrophysical Observatory. HD 145457 is a K0 giant with a mass of 1.9 M_sun and has a planet of minimum mass m_2sini=2.9 M_J orbiting with period of P=176 d and eccentricity of e=0.11. HD 180314 is also a K0 giant with 2.6 M_sun and hosts a substellar companion of m_2sin i=22 M_J, which falls in brown-dwarf mass regime, in an orbit with P=396 d and e=0.26. HD 145457 b is one of the innermost planets and HD 180314 b is the seventh candidate of brown-dwarf-mass companion found around intermediate-mass evolved stars.