Long term stability of planetary orbits

Planets in binary star systems or multi-planet systems can become unstable under the perturbation from binary companion or nearby planets. So far no accurate analytic model can predict the stability of these orbits , therefore
numerical method is essential for planetary orbit integration.
Symplectic integrator is developed (Wisdom & Holman 1991) which provides a fast way to integrate planetary orbits for billions of years.

Previously we modified the integrator to study the stability of circumstellar planets (in test particle limit) in the binary star system HD 59686. We have shown the importance of secular apsidal resonance and mean motion resonance in the stability of coplanar orbits, and Kozai resonance in that of inclined orbits. However such effects for circumbinary planets, or in multi-planet systems, remain elusive. Given the large parameter space to explore, we hope to make use of the cluster computing to extensively explore stability of planetary orbits in binary star/ multi-planet systems.

Except from the stability, we have already developed numerical methods for planetary spin evolution, tidal evolution, planet-disk migration, and ecceentric migration which could also be extensively employed in the cluster computing.