Characterizing WASP-43b's interior structure: unveiling tidal decay and apsidal motion

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Autori principali: Bernabò, Lia Marta, Csizmadia, Szilárd, Smith, Alexis M. S., Harre, Jan-Vincent, Kálmán, Szilárd, Cabrera, Juan, Rauer, Heike, Gandolfi, Davide, Pino, Lorenzo, Ehrenreich, David, Hatzes, Artie
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Bernabò, Lia Marta
Csizmadia, Szilárd
Smith, Alexis M. S.
Harre, Jan-Vincent
Kálmán, Szilárd
Cabrera, Juan
Rauer, Heike
Gandolfi, Davide
Pino, Lorenzo
Ehrenreich, David
Hatzes, Artie
author_facet Bernabò, Lia Marta
Csizmadia, Szilárd
Smith, Alexis M. S.
Harre, Jan-Vincent
Kálmán, Szilárd
Cabrera, Juan
Rauer, Heike
Gandolfi, Davide
Pino, Lorenzo
Ehrenreich, David
Hatzes, Artie
contents Context. Recent developments in exoplanetary research highlight the importance of Love numbers in understanding their internal dynamics, formation, migration history and their potential habitability. Love numbers represent crucial parameters that gauge how exoplanets respond to external forces such as tidal interactions and rotational effects. By measuring these responses, we can gain insights into the internal structure, composition, and density distribution of exoplanets. The rate of apsidal precession of a planetary orbit is directly linked to the second-order fluid Love number, thus we can gain valuable insights into the mass distribution of the planet. Aims. In this context, we aim to re-determine the orbital parameters of WASP-43b-in particular, orbital period, eccentricity, and argument of the periastron-and its orbital evolution. We study the outcomes of the tidal interaction with the host star:whether tidal decay and periastron precession are occurring in the system. Method. We observed the system with HARPS, whose data we present for the first time, and we also analyse the newly acquired JWST full-phase light curve. We fit jointly archival and new radial velocity and transit and occultation mid-times, including tidal decay, periastron precession and long-term acceleration in the system. Results. We detected a tidal decay rate of \dotP_a=(-1.99pm0.50) and a periastron precession rate of \dotomega=(0.1851+0.0070-0.0077)=(0.1727+0.0083-0.0089)deg/d=(621.72+29.88-32.04)arcsec/d. This is the first time that both periastron precession and tidal decay are simultaneously detected in an exoplanetary system. The observed tidal interactions can neither be explained by the tidal contribution to apsidal motion of a non-aligned stellar or planetary rotation axis nor by assuming non-synchronous rotation for the planet, and a value for the planetary Love number cannot be derived. [...]
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_03685
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Characterizing WASP-43b's interior structure: unveiling tidal decay and apsidal motion
Bernabò, Lia Marta
Csizmadia, Szilárd
Smith, Alexis M. S.
Harre, Jan-Vincent
Kálmán, Szilárd
Cabrera, Juan
Rauer, Heike
Gandolfi, Davide
Pino, Lorenzo
Ehrenreich, David
Hatzes, Artie
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Context. Recent developments in exoplanetary research highlight the importance of Love numbers in understanding their internal dynamics, formation, migration history and their potential habitability. Love numbers represent crucial parameters that gauge how exoplanets respond to external forces such as tidal interactions and rotational effects. By measuring these responses, we can gain insights into the internal structure, composition, and density distribution of exoplanets. The rate of apsidal precession of a planetary orbit is directly linked to the second-order fluid Love number, thus we can gain valuable insights into the mass distribution of the planet. Aims. In this context, we aim to re-determine the orbital parameters of WASP-43b-in particular, orbital period, eccentricity, and argument of the periastron-and its orbital evolution. We study the outcomes of the tidal interaction with the host star:whether tidal decay and periastron precession are occurring in the system. Method. We observed the system with HARPS, whose data we present for the first time, and we also analyse the newly acquired JWST full-phase light curve. We fit jointly archival and new radial velocity and transit and occultation mid-times, including tidal decay, periastron precession and long-term acceleration in the system. Results. We detected a tidal decay rate of \dotP_a=(-1.99pm0.50) and a periastron precession rate of \dotomega=(0.1851+0.0070-0.0077)=(0.1727+0.0083-0.0089)deg/d=(621.72+29.88-32.04)arcsec/d. This is the first time that both periastron precession and tidal decay are simultaneously detected in an exoplanetary system. The observed tidal interactions can neither be explained by the tidal contribution to apsidal motion of a non-aligned stellar or planetary rotation axis nor by assuming non-synchronous rotation for the planet, and a value for the planetary Love number cannot be derived. [...]
title Characterizing WASP-43b's interior structure: unveiling tidal decay and apsidal motion
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.03685