  We investigate the hypothesis that interactions between a giant planet and
the disk from which it forms promote eccentricity growth. These interactions
are concentrated at discrete Lindblad and corotation resonances. Interactions
at principal Lindblad resonances cause the planet's orbit to migrate and open a
gap in the disk if the planet is sufficiently massive. Those at first order
Lindblad and corotation resonances change the planet's orbital eccentricity.
Eccentricity is excited by interactions at external Lindblad resonances which
are located on the opposite side of corotation from the planet, and damped by
co-orbital Lindblad resonances which overlap the planet's orbit. If the planet
clears a gap in the disk, the rate of eccentricity damping by co-orbital
Lindblad resonances is reduced. Density gradients associated with the gap
activate eccentricity damping by corotation resonances at a rate which
initially marginally exceeds that of eccentricity excitation by external
Lindblad resonances. But the corotation torque drives a mass flux which reduces
the density gradient near the resonance. Sufficient partial saturation of
corotation resonances can tip the balance in favor of eccentricity excitation.
A minimal initial eccentricity of a few percent is required to overcome viscous
diffusion which acts to unsaturate corotation resonances by reestablishing the
large scale density gradient. Thus eccentricity growth is a finite amplitude
instability. Formally, interactions at the apsidal resonance, which is a
special kind of co-orbital Lindblad resonance, appears to damp eccentricity
faster than external Lindblad resonances can excite it. However, apsidal waves
have such long wavelengths that they do not propagate in protoplanetary disks.
This reduces eccentricity damping by the apsidal resonance to a modest level.
