English

Forever alone? Testing single eccentric planetary systems for multiple companions

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2015-06-16 v2

Abstract

Determining the orbital eccentricity of an extrasolar planet is critically important for understanding the system's dynamical environment and history. However, eccentricity is often poorly determined or entirely mischaracterized due to poor observational sampling, low signal-to-noise, and/or degeneracies with other planetary signals. Some systems previously thought to contain a single, moderate-eccentricity planet have been shown, after further monitoring, to host two planets on nearly-circular orbits. We investigate published apparent single-planet systems to see if the available data can be better fit by two lower-eccentricity planets. We identify nine promising candidate systems and perform detailed dynamical tests to confirm the stability of the potential new multiple-planet systems. Finally, we compare the expected orbits of the single- and double-planet scenarios to better inform future observations of these interesting systems.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1307.0894,
  title  = {Forever alone? Testing single eccentric planetary systems for multiple companions},
  author = {Robert A. Wittenmyer and Songhu Wang and Jonathan Horner and C. G. Tinney and R. P. Butler and H. R. A. Jones and S. J. O'Toole and J. Bailey and B. D. Carter and G. S. Salter and D. Wright and Ji-Lin Zhou},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1307.0894},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

Accepted for publication in ApJS

R2 v1 2026-06-22T00:44:38.494Z