A window on exoplanet dynamical histories: Rossiter-McLaughlin observations of WASP-13b and WASP-32b
Abstract
We present Rossiter-McLaughlin observations of WASP-13b and WASP-32b and determine the sky-projected angle between the normal of the planetary orbit and the stellar rotation axis (λ). WASP-13b and WASP-32b both have prograde orbits and are consistent with alignment with measured sky-projected angles of λ =8°^{+13}_{-12} and λ =-2°^{+17}_{-19}, respectively. Both WASP-13 and WASP-32 have Teff < 6250 K, and therefore, these systems support the general trend that aligned planetary systems are preferentially found orbiting cool host stars. A Lomb-Scargle periodogram analysis was carried out on archival SuperWASP data for both systems. A statistically significant stellar rotation period detection (above 99.9 per cent confidence) was identified for the WASP-32 system with Prot = 11.6 ± 1.0 days. This rotation period is in agreement with the predicted stellar rotation period calculated from the stellar radius, R*, and vsin i if a stellar inclination of i* = 90° is assumed. With the determined rotation period, the true 3D angle between the stellar rotation axis and the planetary orbit, ψ, was found to be ψ = 11° ± 14°. We conclude with a discussion on the alignment of systems around cool host stars with Teff < 6150 K by calculating the tidal dissipation time-scale. We find that systems with short tidal dissipation time-scales are preferentially aligned and systems with long tidal dissipation time-scales have a broad range of obliquities.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- June 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/stu520
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1403.4095
- Bibcode:
- 2014MNRAS.440.3392B
- Keywords:
-
- techniques: photometric;
- techniques: radial velocities;
- stars: individual: WASP-13;
- stars: individual: WASP-32;
- planetary systems;
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 12 pages, 4 Figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS