Chaos and secondary resonances in the Mimas-Tethys system (Q1976133)

The authors investigate the role of the 200-year period discovered by \textit{A. Vienne} et al. [Astron. Astrophys. 257, 331-352 (1992)] on the tidal evolution of the Mimas-Tethys system in the presence of the title resonances. Three arguments are found to generate this period which introduce chaos in the system, especially at capture time. The authors also study the resonance between the libration frequency and the perturbative frequency introduced by extra arguments, the period of which is also about 200 years. The role of each of the three terms is examined concerning the appearence of chaos, and it is shown that the system could have captures in several resonances. A probability of capture in resonances is derived as a function of the eccentricity of Tethys.