Effect of radiation on dust particles in orbital resonances

Abstract

The effect of electromagnetic radiation on the dynamics of arbitrarily shaped cosmic dust particles is investigated. The paper concentrates on the motion of dust grains near commensurability resonances with a planet—mean-motion resonances—and possible capture of the grains in the resonances. A particle is in resonance with a planet when the ratio of the mean motions of the two objects is a ratio of two small integers. The most fundamental properties of the orbital evolution of spherical dust particles in the mean-motion resonances are shortly rederived: the solar wind effect is also included and the existing result is improved. The results for spherical particles are compared with the detailed numerical calculations for nonspherical particles. It is shown that the fundamental results valid for spherical grains do not hold, in general, for nonspherical particles. While spherical particles are always characterized by the secular decrease of the semi-major axes near mean-motion resonances, this may not be true for nonspherical particles. Nonspherical grains may exhibit an increase of the semi-major axes before capturing in the mean-motion resonances. This is caused by the effect of electromagnetic radiation on nonspherical dust grains. The eccentricities of spherical particles in the exterior resonances approach a limiting value, but nonspherical grains may not follow this behaviour. The interior resonances are characterized by a systematic decrease of eccentricity for spheres, but various behaviours exist in the case of irregularly shaped particles. The motion of a nonspherical dust particle under the action of electromagnetic radiation may be characterized by a small change of the semi-major axis during a long-time interval, but the particle is not captured in any mean-motion resonance. This kind of motion does not exist for spherical grains.