Dynamics of Two Planets Near a 2:1 Resonance: Case Studies of Known and Synthetic Exosystems on a Grid of Initial Configurations

The distribution of period ratios for 580 known two-planet systems is apparently nonuniform, with several sharp peaks and troughs. In particular, the vicinity of the 2:1 commensurability seems to have a deficit of systems. Using Monte Carlo simulations and an empirically inferred population distribution of period ratios, we prove that this apparent dearth of near-resonant systems is not statistically significant. The excess of systems with period ratios in the wider vicinity of the 2:1 resonance is significant, however. Long-term WHFast integrations of a synthetic two-planet system on a grid period ratios from 1.87 through 2.12 reveal that the eccentricity and inclination exchange mechanism between non-resonant planets represents the orbital evolution very well in all cases, except at the exact 2:1 mean motion resonance. This resonance destroys the orderly exchange of eccentricity, while the exchange of inclination still takes place. Additional simulations of the Kepler-113 system on a grid of initial inclinations show that the secular periods of eccentricity and inclination variations are well fitted by a simple hyperbolic cosine function of the initial mutual inclination. We further investigate the six known two-planet systems with period ratios within 2% of the exact 2:1 resonance (TOI-216, KIC 5437945, Kepler-384, HD 82943, HD 73526, HD 155358) on a grid of initial inclinations and for two different initial periastron longitudes corresponding to the aligned and anti-aligned states. All these systems are found to be long-term stable except HD 73526, which is likely a false positive. The periodic orbital momentum exchange is still at work in some of these systems, albeit with much shorter cycling periods of a few years.