Asteroid families interacting with secular resonances

Abstract

Asteroid families are formed as the result of collisions. Large fragments are ejected with speeds of the order of the escape velocity from the parent body. After the family formation, the fragments' orbits evolve in the space of proper elements because of gravitational and non-gravitational perturbations, such as the Yarkovsky effect. Disentangling the contribution to the current orbital position of family members caused by the initial ejection velocity field and the subsequent orbital evolution is usually a difficult task. Among the more than 100 asteroid families currently known, some interact with secular resonances. Linear secular resonances occur when there is a commensurability between the precession frequency of the longitude of the pericenter (g) or of the longitude of node (s) of an asteroid and a planet, or a massive asteroid. The linear secular resonance most effective in increasing an asteroid eccentricity is the $ν_6$, that corresponds to a commensurability between the precession frequency g of an asteroid and Saturn's $g_6$. Non-linear secular resonances involve commensurabilities of higher order, and can often be expressed as combinations of linear secular resonances. This is the case, for instance, of the $z_k=k(g-g_6)+(s-s_6)$ resonances. Asteroid families that are crossed by secular resonances are of particular interest in dynamical astronomy. First, they often provide a clear evidence of asteroid orbit evolution due to the Yarkovsky effect. Second, conserved quantities of secular dynamics can be used to set valuable constraints on the magnitude of the original ejection velocity field. Finally, by changing the value of inclination of family members nodal secular resonances with massive asteroids or dwarf planets can cause the i distribution to become more and more leptokurtic (i.e., more peaked and with larger tails than that of a Gaussian distribution).