Synthetic Proper Elements for Outer Main Belt Asteroids

Abstract

For the orbits with low to moderate inclination and eccentricity, in the asteroid main belt, the analytically computed proper elements are accurate to a level very close to the best result achievable by any analytical theory. This fundamental limitation results from the infinite web of resonances and because of the occurrence of chaotic motions. Still, there are some regions of the belt in which these proper elements are of degraded accuracy, thus preventing a reliable definition of asteroid families and detailed studies of the dynamical structure. We have used a different method to compute asteroid proper elements, following the approach introduced in the LONGSTOP project to describe the secular dynamics of the major outer planets. By applying purely numerical techniques, we produced so-called ‘synthetic’ proper elements for a catalog of 10,256 asteroids with osculating semimajor axes between 2.5 and 4.0 AU.