TOI-677 b is part of an emerging class of ``tidally-detached'' gas giants (a/R⋆≳11) that exhibit large orbital eccentricities and yet low stellar obliquities. Such sources pose a challenge for models of giant planet formation, which must account for the excitation of high eccentricities without large changes in the orbital inclination. In this work, we present a new Rossiter-McLaughlin (RM) measurement for the tidally-detached warm Jupiter TOI-677 b, obtained using high-precision radial velocity observations from the PFS/Magellan spectrograph. Combined with previously published observations from the ESPRESSO/VLT spectrograph, we derive one of the most precisely constrained sky-projected spin-orbit angle measurements to date for an exoplanet. The combined fit offers a refined set of self-consistent parameters, including a low sky-projected stellar obliquity of λ=3.2−1.5+1.6 deg and a moderately high eccentricity of e=0.460−0.018+0.019, that further constrains the puzzling architecture of this system. We examine several potential scenarios that may have produced the current TOI-677 orbital configuration, ultimately concluding that TOI-677 b most likely had its eccentricity excited through disk-planet interactions. This system adds to a growing population of aligned warm Jupiters on eccentric orbits around hot (Teff>6100 K) stars.
@article{arxiv.2402.07346,
title = {The PFS view of TOI-677 b: A spin-orbit aligned warm Jupiter in a dynamically hot system},
author = {Qingru Hu and Malena Rice and Xian-Yu Wang and Songhu Wang and Avi Shporer and Johanna K. Teske and Samuel W. Yee and R. Paul Butler and Stephen Shectman and Jeffrey D. Crane and Karen A. Collins and Kevin I. Collins},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.07346},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
16 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal