Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 316 1 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
In resonant trapping of dust, the resonant torque must compensate the inward Poynting–Robertson drag. At the nearly fixed resonant semi-major axis, requiresSince , a necessary torque-balance condition is . When the limiting orbital eccentricity is small, this givesEquality allows only the extreme phase , with no margin for restoring torque; a robust trapped state needs . This is a necessary condition for resonance capture, not a sufficient probability-of-capture criterion for a migrating particle.