In celestial mechanics, the Kozai mechanism or Lidov–Kozai mechanism or Kozai–Lidov mechanism, also known as the Kozai, Lidov–Kozai or Kozai–Lidov effect, oscillations, cycles or resonance, is a dynamical phenomenon affecting the orbit of a binary system perturbed by a distant third body under certain conditions, causing the orbit's argument of pericenter to oscillate about a constant value, which in turn leads to a periodic exchange between its eccentricity and inclination. The process occurs on timescales much longer than the orbital periods. It can drive an initially near-circular orbit to arbitrarily high eccentricity, and "flip" an initially moderately inclined orbit between a prograde and a retrograde motion.