Paper detail

Cassini states of a rigid body with a liquid core

The purpose of this work is to determine the location and stability of the Cassini states of a celestial body with an inviscid fluid core surrounded by a perfectly rigid mantle. Both situations where the rotation speed is either non-resonant or trapped in a p:1 spin-orbit resonance where p is a half integer are addressed. The rotation dynamics is described by the Poincaré-Hough model which assumes a simple motion of the core. The problem is written in a non-canonical Hamiltonian formalism. The secular evolution is obtained without any truncation in obliquity, eccentricity nor inclination. The condition for the body to be in a Cassini state is written as a set of two equations whose unknowns are the mantle obliquity and the tilt angle of the core spin-axis. Solving the system with Mercury's physical and orbital parameters leads to a maximum of 16 different equilibrium configurations, half of them being spectrally stable. In most of these solutions the core is highly tilted with respect to the mantle. The model is also applied to Io and the Moon.