OVERVIEW/OBJECTIVES: A SURPRISINGLY LARGE NUMBER OF OBSERVED KUIPER BELT OBJECTS (KBOS) ARE FOUND TO OCCUPY DISTANT RESONANCES OF NEPTUNE THAT HAD PREVIOUSLY BEEN THOUGHT TO BE WEAK AND IRRELEVANT. SOME KBOS ARE ONLY TRANSIENTLY RESIDING IN RESONANCES IN BETWEEN GRAVITATIONAL SCATTERING EVENTS WITH THE GIANT PLANETS. WE WILL INVESTIGATE THE DYNAMICS OF RESONANCE STICKING IN THE KUIPER BELT'S SCATTERING POPULATION AND THE DYNAMICAL BOUNDARIES BETWEEN RESONANT SCATTERING DETACHED AND DIFFUSING KBOS. OUR FIRST OBJECTIVE IS TO MAP THE CHAOTIC BOUNDARIES OF NEPTUNE'S DISTANT RESONANCES (TASK 1). THE RESONANCE WIDTHS BOUNDARIES AND ASSOCIATED RESONANT LIBRATION TIMESCALES WILL DETERMINE HOW FAR OUT NEPTUNE'S INDIVIDUAL RESONANCES ARE DYNAMICALLY SIGNIFICANT. OUR SECOND OBJECTIVE IS TO BETTER QUANTIFY THE PRESENTLY FUZZY BOUNDARIES AMONGST THE SCATTERING DIFFUSING AND DETACHED POPULATIONS OF KBOS (TASK 2). THE SCATTERING POPULATION EVOLVES GREATLY IN SEMI-MAJOR AXIS DUE TO DISCRETE GRAVITATIONAL SCATTERING EVENTS WITH NEPTUNE; THE DIFFUSING POPULATION OF KBOS SLOWLY RANDOM-WALK IN SEMI-MAJOR AXIS DUE TO SMALLER ENERGY KICKS AT PERIHELION; AND THE DETACHED KBOS HAVE TRULY INSIGNIFICANT SEMI-MAJOR AXIS EVOLUTION ON GIGA-YEAR TIMESCALES. WE WILL IMPROVE THE IDENTIFICATION OF OBSERVED KBOS THAT REFLECT DYNAMICAL PROCESSES IN THE CURRENT SOLAR SYSTEM VERSUS THOSE WHICH ARE LIKELY TO RECORD THE OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM'S EARLY DYNAMICAL HISTORY AND/OR THE EFFECTS OF UNSEEN DISTANT PERTURBERS. OUR THIRD OBJECTIVE IS TO MODEL THE STEADY STATE RESONANCE STICKING POPULATION (TASK 3) USING OUR IMPROVED UNDERSTANDING OF NEPTUNE'S DISTANT RESONANCES IN CONJUNCTION WITH OUR IMPROVED UNDERSTANDING OF THE SCATTERING AND DIFFUSING POPULATIONS. MOTIVATED BY THE UNEXPECTEDLY LARGE OBSERVED NUMBER OF DISTANT TRANSIENTLY RESONANT OBJECTS WE WILL DETERMINE HOW SENSITIVELY THE SIZE OF THIS RESONANCE STICKING POPULATION DEPENDS ON THE MODELED ORBITAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE SCATTERING AND DIFFUSING POPULATIONS. METHODS: TO MAP THE PHASE SPACE STRUCTURE OF NEPTUNE'S DISTANT RESONANCES WE WILL QUANTIFY EACH RESONANCE'S PROPERTIES BY MEASURING THE WIDTHS OF THE STABLE AND CHAOTIC RESONANCE ZONES AS WELL AS THEIR RANGE OF LIBRATION TIMESCALES IN THREE BODY AND FULL NUMERICAL INTEGRATIONS. TO DELINEATE THE BOUNDARIES OF SCATTERING DIFFUSING AND DETACHED KBOS IN ORBITAL PARAMETER SPACE (SEMI-MAJOR AXIS ECCENTRICITY AND INCLINATION) WE WILL USE SEMI-ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES AND FULL N-BODY SIMULATIONS TO DETERMINE THE SUBSTANTIALLY DIFFERENT DYNAMICAL PATHWAYS AVAILABLE TO KBOS OVER THE AGE OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. WE WILL DEVELOP A MONTE-CARLO MODEL (VALIDATED AGAINST FULL N-BODY INTEGRATIONS) TO INVESTIGATE HOW THE STEADY-STATE RESONANCE STICKING POPULATION DEPENDS ON THE ORBITAL DISTRIBUTION OF THEIR PUTATIVE SOURCES IN THE SCATTERING AND DIFFUSING KBO POPULATIONS. SIGNIFICANCE: UNDERSTANDING RESONANCE STICKING IS EMERGING AS CRITICALLY NECESSARY FOR INTERPRETING KUIPER BELT OBSERVATIONS AND DETERMINING WHETHER THE OBSERVED DISTANT KUIPER BELT CAN BE REPRESENTED BY A STEADY-STATE MIX OF SCATTERING DIFFUSING AND TRANSIENTLY RESONANT OBJECTS WITHIN THE CURRENT MODEL OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM; DEVIATIONS FROM SUCH A MODEL WOULD PROVIDE EVIDENCE FOR (AND TEST THE HYPOTHESES FOR) UNIDENTIFIED PERTURBATIONS OR ALTERNATIVE MODELS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM'S DYNAMICAL HISTORY. IDENTIFYING THE LIMITS ON THE INFLUENCE OF NEPTUNE'S RESONANCES IN THE MOST DISTANT KUIPER BELT AND QUANTIFYING THE BOUNDARIES BETWEEN SCATTERING DIFFUSING AND DETACHED KBOS IS HIGHLY RELEVANT TO RECENT INVESTIGATIONS OF EXTREME/DETACHED KBOS AND THE EVIDENCE FOR AN UNSEEN DISTANT PLANET. MANY RECENT STUDIES HAVE ASSUMED THAT KBOS WITH LARGE PERIHELIA AND SEMI-MAJOR AXES ARE DYNAMICALLY DETACHED FROM THE KNOWN GIANT PLANETS BUT THE WIDELY VARYING DEFINITIONS USED IN THESE STUDIES FOR EXTREME/DETACHED KBOS INDICATE THAT THE BOUNDARIES BETWEEN THESE POPULATIONS ARE NOT WELL UNDERSTOOD.