Limits of Stability for Planets in Double Star Systems Using the Fast Lyapunov Indicators

Abstract

The discovery of extra solar planets in double star systems led to a growing interest of stability studies of such systems. This numerical investigation used the Fast Lyapunov Indicator to determine the zone of stability in a binary where the stars have equal masses. We studied the motion in the circular and in the elliptic restricted three body problem. The stable region is defined by the maximum distance to one of the two stars for which we found stable motion. In the elliptic restricted three body problem we examined the dependence of the stability zone on the eccentricity of the binary and of the planet.