The Astronomical Journal (Jan 2024)

TESS Giants Transiting Giants. VI. Newly Discovered Hot Jupiters Provide Evidence for Efficient Obliquity Damping after the Main Sequence

  • Nicholas Saunders,
  • Samuel K. Grunblatt,
  • Ashley Chontos,
  • Fei Dai,
  • Daniel Huber,
  • Jingwen Zhang,
  • Guđmundur Stefánsson,
  • Jennifer L. van Saders,
  • Joshua N. Winn,
  • Daniel Hey,
  • Andrew W. Howard,
  • Benjamin Fulton,
  • Howard Isaacson,
  • Corey Beard,
  • Steven Giacalone,
  • Judah Van Zandt,
  • Joseph M. Akana Murphey,
  • Malena Rice,
  • Sarah Blunt,
  • Emma Turtelboom,
  • Paul A. Dalba,
  • Jack Lubin,
  • Casey Brinkman,
  • Emma M. Louden,
  • Emma Page,
  • Cristilyn N. Watkins,
  • Karen A. Collins,
  • Chris Stockdale,
  • Thiam-Guan Tan,
  • Richard P. Schwarz,
  • Bob Massey,
  • Steve B. Howell,
  • Andrew Vanderburg,
  • George R. Ricker,
  • Jon M. Jenkins,
  • Sara Seager,
  • Jessie L. Christiansen,
  • Tansu Daylan,
  • Ben Falk,
  • Max Brodheim,
  • Steven R. Gibson,
  • Grant M. Hill,
  • Bradford Holden,
  • Aaron Householder,
  • Stephen Kaye,
  • Russ R. Laher,
  • Kyle Lanclos,
  • Erik A. Petigura,
  • Arpita Roy,
  • Ryan A. Rubenzahl,
  • Christian Schwab,
  • Abby P. Shaum,
  • Martin M. Sirk,
  • Christopher L. Smith,
  • Josh Walawender,
  • Sherry Yeh

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ad543b
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 168, no. 2
p. 81

Abstract

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The degree of alignment between a star’s spin axis and the orbital plane of its planets (the stellar obliquity) is related to interesting and poorly understood processes that occur during planet formation and evolution. Hot Jupiters orbiting hot stars (≳6250 K) display a wide range of obliquities, while similar planets orbiting cool stars are preferentially aligned. Tidal dissipation is expected to be more rapid in stars with thick convective envelopes, potentially explaining this trend. Evolved stars provide an opportunity to test the damping hypothesis, particularly stars that were hot on the main sequence and have since cooled and developed deep convective envelopes. We present the first systematic study of the obliquities of hot Jupiters orbiting subgiants that recently developed convective envelopes using Rossiter–McLaughlin observations. Our sample includes two newly discovered systems in the Giants Transiting Giants survey (TOI-6029 b, TOI-4379 b). We find that the orbits of hot Jupiters orbiting subgiants that have cooled below ∼6250 K are aligned or nearly aligned with the spin axis of their host stars, indicating rapid tidal realignment after the emergence of a stellar convective envelope. We place an upper limit for the timescale of realignment for hot Jupiters orbiting subgiants at ∼500 Myr. Comparison with a simplified tidal evolution model shows that obliquity damping needs to be ∼4 orders of magnitude more efficient than orbital period decay to damp the obliquity without destroying the planet, which is consistent with recent predictions for tidal dissipation from inertial waves excited by hot Jupiters on misaligned orbits.

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