Related papers: A Quasi-Stationary Solution to Gliese 436b's Eccen…
GJ 436b is a Neptune-size planet with 23.2 Earth masses in an elliptical orbit of period 2.64 days and eccentricity 0.16. With a typical tidal dissipation factor (Q' ~ 10^6) as that of a giant planet with convective envelope, its orbital…
In order to explain the significant orbital eccentricity of the short-period transiting Neptune-mass planet GJ 436b and at the same time satisfy various observational constraints and anomalies, Ribas, Font-Ribera and Beaulieu have proposed…
The close-in planet orbiting GJ 436 presents a puzzling orbital eccentricity considering its very short orbital period. Given the age of the system, this planet should have been tidally circularized a long time ago. Many attempts to explain…
The increasing number of transiting planets raises the possibility of finding changes in their transit time, duration and depth that could be indicative of further planets in the system. Experience from eclipsing binaries indeed shows that…
We perform numerical simulations to study the secular orbital evolution and dynamical structure in the HD 69830 system with the best-fit orbital solutions by Lovis and coworkers (2006). In the simulations, we show that the triplet Neptunian…
The GJ 436 system contains a transiting planet GJ 436 b which is a hot analogue of Neptune on an eccentric orbit. Recently, two additional transiting sub-Earth planets have been postulated in the literature. We observed three transits of GJ…
The post-main sequence eclipsing binary NN Serpentis was recently announced as the potential host of at least two massive planetary companions. In that work, the authors put forward two potential architectures that fit the observations of…
We present a model to study secularly and tidally evolving three-body systems composed by two low-mass planets orbiting a star, in the case where the bodies rotation axes are always perpendicular to the orbital plane. The tidal theory…
We report on H-band, ground-based observations of a transit of the hot Neptune GJ 436b. Once combined to achieve sampling equivalent to archived observations taken with Spitzer, our measurements reach comparable precision levels. We analyze…
Gliese 436 is an M dwarf with a mass of 0.45 Msun and hosts the extrasolar planet GL 436b [3, 6, 7, 2], which is currently the least massive transiting planet with a mass of ~23.17 Mearth [10], and the only planet known to transit an M…
Tidal dissipation within a short-period transiting extrasolar planet perturbed by a companion object can drive orbital evolution of the system to a so-called tidal fixed point, in which the apsidal lines of the transiting planet and its…
Recent observations have shown that at least some close-in exoplanets maintain eccentric orbits despite tidal circularization timescales that are typically shorter than stellar ages. We explore gravitational interactions with a distant…
Hot Neptunes in the sub-Jovian desert offer unique insights into planetary system evolution, retaining signatures of dynamical processes that shaped their present-day architectures. Many of these planets exhibit polar orbits, yet the…
Using numerical methods we investigate the dynamical stability of the Gliese 581 exoplanetary system. The system is known to harbour four planets (b-e). The existence of another planet (g) in the liquid water habitable zone of the star is…
We provide an 'effective theory' of tidal dissipation in extrasolar planet systems by empirically calibrating a model for the equilibrium tide. The model is valid to high order in eccentricity and parameterised by two constants of bulk…
Two planets with orbital period ratio approximately 10:1 have been discovered around the star HD 83443. The inner and more massive planet, HD 83443b, has the smallest semi-major axis among all currently known exoplanets. Unlike other short…
We present a comprehensive analysis of transit, eclipse, and radial velocity data of the hot Jupiter TrES-1 b and confirm evidence of orbital variations on secular timescales. Apparent variations due to systemic motion and light travel time…
We present ground-based observations of the transiting Neptune-mass planet Gl 436b obtained with the 3.5-meter telescope at Apache Point Observatory and other supporting telescopes. Included in this is an observed transit in early 2005,…
We revisit the tidal stability of extrasolar systems harboring a transiting planet and demonstrate that, independently of any tidal model, none but one (HAT-P-2b) of these planets has a tidal equilibrium state, which implies ultimately a…
We test the high-eccentricity tidal migration scenario for Kepler-419b, a member of the eccentric warm Jupiter class of planets whose origin is debated. Kepler-419 hosts two known planets (b,c). However, in its current configuration, planet…