On the Stability of a Planetary System Embedded in the Beta Pictoris Debris Disk

Abstract

It has recently been stated that the warp structure observed around the star Beta Pictoris may be due to four planets embedded in its debris disk (Wahhaj et al., 2003). It, therefore, becomes important to investigate for what range of parameters, and for how long such a multibody system will be dynamically stable. We present the results of the numerical integration of the suggested planetary system for different values of the mass and radii of the planets, and their relative positions and velocities. We also present a statistical analysis of the results in an effort to understand the relation between the different regions of the parameter-space of the system and the duration of the orbital stability of the embedded planets.