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F. Marzari (Planetary Science Institute), H. Scholl (Observatoire de Nice)
We numerically simulate the trapping as Trojans of planetesimals orbiting nearby a growing proto--Jupiter. In the early phases of solar system formation the growth in mass of Jupiter and the mutual collisions between planetesimals contribute to create a consistent population of Trojans. As shown in Marzari et al. (1998) the mass increase of a protoplanet can trap planetesimals into large libration Trojan orbits. Mutual collisions increase the trapping rate and, moreover, they spread the libration amplitudes of trapped Trojans.
In our numerical simulations we include both the phenomena (mass growth of the giant planets and mutual collisions) and we reproduce with good accuracy the present distribution of Trojan libration amplitudes. We also find that a Kozai secular resonance can transform high eccentricity--low inclination planetesimals in high inclination--low eccentricity Trojans. This mechanism might explain the present large inclinations of many Trojans.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: marzari@psi.edu