https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-025-01915-2
Regular Article
Particle dynamics in TOI-178 planetary system
1
Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Department of Computational Physics, University of Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 10, 72076, Tübingen, Germany
2
UNESP-São Paulo State University, Av. Ariberto Pereira da Cunha, 333, Guaratinguetá, 12516-410, São Paulo, Brazil
3
LIRA, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Cité, CY Cergy Paris Université, CNRS, 5 Place Jules Janssen, 92190, Meudon, Île-de-France, France
4
Institute of Aerodynamics and Gas Dynamics, University of Stuttgart, Wankelstraße 3, 70563, Stuttgart, Germany
a
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Received:
30
April
2025
Accepted:
1
September
2025
Published online:
10
September
2025
Abstract
The TOI-178 system hosts six planets with five of them locked in a 2:4:6:9:12 Laplace resonance chain. We perform N-body simulations to investigate the dynamics of test particles in this system. We observe that co-orbital regions around each planet are approximately 30% wider than predicted by classical theory for planets in the resonance chain, while TOI-178b, which lies outside the chain, shows a 52% enhancement. The region between TOI-178e and TOI-178f reveals Kirkwood gap-like structures created by mean-motion resonances with TOI-178f (4:3, 5:4, 6:5) and TOI-178g (5:3), where particle clearing occurs on 500-year timescales. An extended integration of the innermost region (0.015–0.025 au) shows periodic inclination oscillations with period 196 years, coincident with TOI-178b’s own oscillation period, with maximum amplitude occurring near the 3:2 resonance location. These structures are consistent with the system’s resonant architecture and provide a baseline characterization that enables future comparative studies of similar phenomena in other multi-planet systems with resonant configurations.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
