More Likely Than You Think: Inclination-Driving Secular Resonances are Common in Known Exoplanet Systems

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Faridani, Thea, Naoz, Smadar, Li, Gongjie, Rice, Malena, Inzunza, Nicholas
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Faridani, Thea
Naoz, Smadar
Li, Gongjie
Rice, Malena
Inzunza, Nicholas
author_facet Faridani, Thea
Naoz, Smadar
Li, Gongjie
Rice, Malena
Inzunza, Nicholas
contents Multi-planet systems face significant challenges to detection. For example, further orbiting planets have reduced signal-to-noise ratio in radial velocity detection methods, and small mutual inclinations between planets can prevent them from all transiting. One mechanism to excite mutual inclination between planets is secular resonance, where the nodal precession frequencies of the planets align such as to greatly increase the efficiency of angular momentum transport between planets. These resonances can significantly misalign planets from one another, hindering detection, and typically can only occur when there are three or more planets in the system. Naively, systems can only be in resonance for particular combinations of planet semimajor axes and masses; however, effects that alter the nodal precession frequencies of the planets, such as the decay of stellar oblateness, can significantly expand the region of parameter space where resonances occur. In this work, we explore known three-planet systems, determine whether they are in (or were in) secular resonance due to evolving stellar oblateness, and demonstrate the implications of resonance on their detectability and stability. We show that about 20% of a sample of three planet transiting systems seem to undergo these resonances early in their lives.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_09359
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle More Likely Than You Think: Inclination-Driving Secular Resonances are Common in Known Exoplanet Systems
Faridani, Thea
Naoz, Smadar
Li, Gongjie
Rice, Malena
Inzunza, Nicholas
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Multi-planet systems face significant challenges to detection. For example, further orbiting planets have reduced signal-to-noise ratio in radial velocity detection methods, and small mutual inclinations between planets can prevent them from all transiting. One mechanism to excite mutual inclination between planets is secular resonance, where the nodal precession frequencies of the planets align such as to greatly increase the efficiency of angular momentum transport between planets. These resonances can significantly misalign planets from one another, hindering detection, and typically can only occur when there are three or more planets in the system. Naively, systems can only be in resonance for particular combinations of planet semimajor axes and masses; however, effects that alter the nodal precession frequencies of the planets, such as the decay of stellar oblateness, can significantly expand the region of parameter space where resonances occur. In this work, we explore known three-planet systems, determine whether they are in (or were in) secular resonance due to evolving stellar oblateness, and demonstrate the implications of resonance on their detectability and stability. We show that about 20% of a sample of three planet transiting systems seem to undergo these resonances early in their lives.
title More Likely Than You Think: Inclination-Driving Secular Resonances are Common in Known Exoplanet Systems
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.09359