668094 event 1686673663 1686673663 Nathaniel W. H. Moore
(Advisor: Dr. Gongjie Li)
will defend a doctoral thesis entitled,
Dynamics of Debris Disks and Young Planetary Systems
On
Wednesday, June 21 at 11:00 a.m.
The Boggs Building, CRA Viz Lab
[https://gatech.zoom.us/j/98283910365]
Abstract
Debris disks are gas-poor structures of dust which orbit around their host star. These disks are
the leftover remnants of planetary formation and can hold important clues in understanding the
evolution and history of planetary systems. Distinct features in a disk’s morphology can
elucidate the architecture of an underlying planetary system or indicate the signatures of past
close encounters with flyby stars. In this thesis I discuss both our Solar System debris disk, as
well as that of an exoplanetary system: HD106906. Specifically, I use signs in the inclination
distribution of the Kuiper Belt in our own Solar System to constrain the environment of our Solar
System’s stellar birth cluster. I also use observations of unique features in the debris disk
surrounding HD106906 to constrain its evolutionary history and propose a unique formation
theory for this unusual system. My results provide a link between the present configuration of a
system’s debris disk and the dynamical history of the system itself.
Beyond debris disks, I then explore the role of planetary orbital dynamics on habitability. I
considered an external perturber on young planetary systems through the dynamical mechanism
known as evection resonance and discuss the implications that this mechanism may have in
increasing the habitability of planets in such systems.
Committee
• Dr. Gongjie Li – School of Physics
• Dr. John Wise – School of Physics
• Dr. Surabhi Sachdev – School of Physics
• Dr. James Wray – School of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences
• Dr. Fred C. Adams – Physics Department, University of Michigan

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