The Orbital Eccentricity--Radius Distribution for Warm, Single Planets in TESS
Abstract
We characterize the radius-dependent eccentricity distribution of 347 warm (P = 8-200 days) systems with only one transiting planetary candidate identified during Sectors 1-69 of the TESS mission. Using the ``photoeccentric effect'' in a hierarchical Bayesian framework, we first model the population using discrete planetary size bins (sub-Neptunes, sub-Saturns, and Jovians). We then develop a continuous mixture model with weights governed by a logistic sigmoid function of radius. We find that the warm-single population is best described by two components: a dominant low-eccentricity mode ( <e_low> = 0.070-0.068+0.026) and a secondary dynamically excited mode (<e_high> = 0.616-0.075+0.091). The fraction of planets belonging to this high-eccentricity component increases strongly with planet radius, characterized by a transition at a break radius of R_br = 9.8-1.1+1.4 R_e. This trend places warm sub-Saturns predominantly on the same low-eccentricity track as sub-Neptunes. In contrast, warm Jovians (8--16 R_e) are frequently eccentric, with 59+-13% of the population in the high eccentricity mode. We detect this bimodality at >4sigma, providing statistically significant evidence that warm gas giants are sculpted by two distinct pathways, or a single mechanism with subsequent eccentricity excitation. Finally, we identify a non-negligible tail of highly eccentric sub-Neptunes (1--4 R_e), which comprise 14.9-6.5+5.1% of the population, consistent with excitation by non-transiting external companions.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2602.20015,
title = {The Orbital Eccentricity--Radius Distribution for Warm, Single Planets in TESS},
author = {Tyler R. Fairnington and Jiayin Dong and Chelsea X. Huang and Emma Nabbie and George Zhou and Duncan Wright and Karen A. Collins and David Ciardi and Jon M. Jenkins and David W. Latham and George Ricker and Samuel N. Quinn and Sara Seager and Avi Shporer and Roland Vanderspek and Joshua N. Winn and Khalid Barkaoui and Allyson Bieryla and Lars Buchhave and Dmitry Cheryasov and Jessie Christiansen and Courtney Dressing and Akihiko Fukui and Alexey Garmash and Steven Giacalone and Eric G. Hintz and Steve B. Howell and Keisuke Isogai and Jerome de Leon and Jorge Lillo-Box and Felipe Murgas and Norio Narita and Louise D. Nielsen and Enric Palle and Markus Rabus and Benjamin V. Rackham and Richard P. Schwarz and Gregor Srdoc and Denise C. Stephens and Gavin Wang and Noriharu Watanabe and Francis P. Wilkin and Joe Williams},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.20015},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
Submitted to ApJ Letters