Unveiling the Origin of Planetary Systems by Dynamical and Statistical Approaches

School of Physics Seminar: Gongjie Li, Harvard University

The unexpected diversity of observed extrasolar planetary systems has posed new challenges to our classical understanding of planetary formation. A lot of these challenges can be addressed by a deeper understanding of the dynamics in planetary systems, which will also allow us to construct more accurate planetary formation theories consistent with observations.

In this talk, I will first explain the origin of counter orbiting planets using a new dynamical mechanism I discovered, which also has wide implications in other astrophysical systems, such as the enhancement of tidal disruption rates near supermassive black hole binaries. Then, I will illustrate another dynamical mechanism which can produce the detected spin-orbit misalignment for system Kepler-56. In addition, I will uncover the architectural properties of circumbinary planetary systems from selection biases using statistical methods, and infer the origin of such systems.