Latitudinal variations of charged dust in co-orbital resonance with Jupiter

Abstract

The interplanetary magnetic field may cause large amplitude changes in the orbital inclinations of charged dust particles. In order to study this effect in the case of dust grains moving in 1:1 mean motion resonance with planet Jupiter, a simplified semi-analytical model is developed to reduce the full dynamics of the system to the terms containing the information of the secular evolution dominated by the Lorentz force. It was found that while the planet causes variations in all orbital elements, the influence of the magnetic field most heavily impacts the long-term evolution of the inclination and the longitude of the ascending node. The simplified secular-resonant model recreates the oscillations in these parameters very well in comparison to the full solution, despite neglecting the influence of the magnetic field on the other orbital parameters.