CHAOTIC ZONES AROUND GRAVITATING BINARIES

The extent of the continuous zone of chaotic orbits of a small-mass tertiary around a system of two gravitationally bound primaries of comparable masses (a binary star, a binary black hole, a binary asteroid, etc.) is estimated analytically, as a function of the tertiary's orbital eccentricity. The separatrix map theory is used to demonstrate that the central continuous chaos zone emerges (above a threshold in the primaries' mass ratio) due to overlapping of the orbital resonances corresponding to the integer ratios p:1 between the tertiary and the central binary periods. In this zone, the unlimited chaotic orbital diffusion of the tertiary takes place, up to its ejection from the system. The primaries' mass ratio, above which such a chaotic zone is universally present at all initial eccentricities of the tertiary, is estimated. The diversity of the observed orbital configurations of biplanetary and circumbinary exosystems is shown to be in accord with the existence of the primaries' mass parameter threshold.