Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T15:49:43.975Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Spin-orbit alignment of exoplanet systems: analysis of an ensemble of asteroseismic observations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2016

Tiago L. Campante*
Affiliation:
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK email: campante@bison.ph.bham.ac.uk Stellar Astrophysics Centre (SAC), Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 120, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Measuring the obliquities of exoplanet-host stars provides invaluable diagnostic information for theories of planetary formation and migration. Most of these results have so far been obtained by measuring the Rossiter–McLaughlin effect, clearly favoring systems that harbor hot Jupiters. While it would be extremely helpful to extend these measurements to long-period and multiple-planet systems, it is also true that the latter systems tend to involve smaller planets, making it ever so difficult to apply such techniques. Asteroseismology provides a powerful method of determining the inclination of the stellar spin axis — from an analysis of the rotationally-induced splittings of the oscillation modes — whose applicability is ultimately determined by the stellar parameters and not by the signal-to-noise ratio of the transit data. Here we present the first statistical analysis of an ensemble of asteroseismic obliquity measurements obtained for solar-type stars with transiting planets. The sample consists of 25 Kepler planet-candidate host stars, 14 of which are multi-transiting systems. We seek empirical constraints on the spin-orbit alignment of exoplanet systems and discuss the implications for theories of planetary formation and migration.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2016 

References

Albrecht, S., Winn, J. N., Johnson, J. A., et al. 2012, ApJ, 757, 18 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Albrecht, S., Winn, J. N., Marcy, G. W., et al. 2013, ApJ, 771, 11 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benomar, O., Masuda, K., Shibahashi, H., & Suto, Y. 2014, PASJ, 66, 94 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaplin, W. J., Sanchis-Ojeda, R., Campante, T. L., et al. 2013, ApJ, 766, 101 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gizon, L. & Solanki, S. K. 2003, ApJ, 589, 1009 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gizon, L., Ballot, J., Michel, E., et al. 2013, Proc. of the National Academy of Science, 110, 13267 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Handberg, R. & Campante, T. L. 2011, A&A, 527, A56 Google Scholar
Handberg, R. & Lund, M. N. 2014, MNRAS, 445, 2698 Google Scholar
Hirano, T., Sanchis-Ojeda, R., Takeda, Y., et al. 2014, ApJ, 783, 9 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huber, D., Carter, J. A., Barbieri, M., et al. 2013, Science, 342, 331 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lund, M. N., Lundkvist, M., Silva Aguirre, V., et al. 2014, A&A, 570, A54 Google Scholar
Morton, T. D. & Winn, J. N. 2014, ApJ, 796, 47 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rauer, H., Catala, C., Aerts, C., et al. 2014, Experimental Astronomy, 38, 249 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ricker, G. R., Winn, J. N., Vanderspek, R., et al. 2015, Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems, 1, 014003 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, D. J., Chené, A.-N., De Cat, P., et al. 2011, ApJ (Letters), 728, L20 Google Scholar