Exoplanet Nodal Precession Induced by Rapidly Rotating Stars: Impacts on Transit Probabilities and Biases
For the majority of short-period exoplanets transiting massive stars with radiative envelopes, the spin angular momentum of the host star is greater than the planetary orbital angular momentum. In this case, the orbits of the planets will undergo nodal precession, which can significantly impact the...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2023-01-01
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| Series: | The Astrophysical Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/accd6b |
| _version_ | 1797694514541887488 |
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| author | Alexander P. Stephan B. Scott Gaudi |
| author_facet | Alexander P. Stephan B. Scott Gaudi |
| author_sort | Alexander P. Stephan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | For the majority of short-period exoplanets transiting massive stars with radiative envelopes, the spin angular momentum of the host star is greater than the planetary orbital angular momentum. In this case, the orbits of the planets will undergo nodal precession, which can significantly impact the probability that the planets transit their parent star. In particular, for some combinations of the spin–orbit angle ψ and the inclination of the stellar spin i _* , all such planets will eventually transit at some point over the duration of their precession period. Thus, as the time over which the sky has been monitored for transiting planets increases, the frequency of planets with detectable transits will increase, potentially leading to biased estimates of exoplanet occurrence rates, especially orbiting more-massive stars. Furthermore, due to the dependence of the precession period on orbital parameters such as spin–orbit misalignment, the observed distributions of such parameters may also be biased. We derive the transit probability of a given exoplanet in the presence of nodal precession induced by a rapidly spinning host star. We find that the effect of nodal precession has already started to become relevant for some short-period planets, i.e., hot Jupiters, orbiting massive stars, by increasing transit probabilities by order of a few percent for such systems within the original Kepler field. We additionally derive simple expressions to describe the time evolution of the impact parameter b for applicable systems, which should aid in future investigations of exoplanet nodal precession and spin–orbit alignment. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T02:59:03Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5b1049732e8b4535b39b47d58a633ce4 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1538-4357 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T02:59:03Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Astrophysical Journal |
| spelling | doaj.art-5b1049732e8b4535b39b47d58a633ce42023-09-03T15:04:37ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal1538-43572023-01-0195013210.3847/1538-4357/accd6bExoplanet Nodal Precession Induced by Rapidly Rotating Stars: Impacts on Transit Probabilities and BiasesAlexander P. Stephan0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8220-0548B. Scott Gaudi1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0395-9869Department of Astronomy, The Ohio State University , Columbus, OH 43210, USA ; stephan.98@osu.edu; Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics, The Ohio State University , Columbus, OH 43210, USADepartment of Astronomy, The Ohio State University , Columbus, OH 43210, USA ; stephan.98@osu.eduFor the majority of short-period exoplanets transiting massive stars with radiative envelopes, the spin angular momentum of the host star is greater than the planetary orbital angular momentum. In this case, the orbits of the planets will undergo nodal precession, which can significantly impact the probability that the planets transit their parent star. In particular, for some combinations of the spin–orbit angle ψ and the inclination of the stellar spin i _* , all such planets will eventually transit at some point over the duration of their precession period. Thus, as the time over which the sky has been monitored for transiting planets increases, the frequency of planets with detectable transits will increase, potentially leading to biased estimates of exoplanet occurrence rates, especially orbiting more-massive stars. Furthermore, due to the dependence of the precession period on orbital parameters such as spin–orbit misalignment, the observed distributions of such parameters may also be biased. We derive the transit probability of a given exoplanet in the presence of nodal precession induced by a rapidly spinning host star. We find that the effect of nodal precession has already started to become relevant for some short-period planets, i.e., hot Jupiters, orbiting massive stars, by increasing transit probabilities by order of a few percent for such systems within the original Kepler field. We additionally derive simple expressions to describe the time evolution of the impact parameter b for applicable systems, which should aid in future investigations of exoplanet nodal precession and spin–orbit alignment.https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/accd6bExoplanetsHot JupitersTransits |
| spellingShingle | Alexander P. Stephan B. Scott Gaudi Exoplanet Nodal Precession Induced by Rapidly Rotating Stars: Impacts on Transit Probabilities and Biases The Astrophysical Journal Exoplanets Hot Jupiters Transits |
| title | Exoplanet Nodal Precession Induced by Rapidly Rotating Stars: Impacts on Transit Probabilities and Biases |
| title_full | Exoplanet Nodal Precession Induced by Rapidly Rotating Stars: Impacts on Transit Probabilities and Biases |
| title_fullStr | Exoplanet Nodal Precession Induced by Rapidly Rotating Stars: Impacts on Transit Probabilities and Biases |
| title_full_unstemmed | Exoplanet Nodal Precession Induced by Rapidly Rotating Stars: Impacts on Transit Probabilities and Biases |
| title_short | Exoplanet Nodal Precession Induced by Rapidly Rotating Stars: Impacts on Transit Probabilities and Biases |
| title_sort | exoplanet nodal precession induced by rapidly rotating stars impacts on transit probabilities and biases |
| topic | Exoplanets Hot Jupiters Transits |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/accd6b |
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