Related papers: Can planetary instability explain the Kepler dicho…
Almost half of the stellar systems in the solar neighborhood are made up of multiple stars. In multiple-star systems, planet formation is under the dynamical influence of stellar companions, and the planet occurrence rate is expected to be…
Recent observational findings have suggested a positive correlation between the occurrence rates of inner super-Earths and outer giant planets. These results raise the question of whether this trend can be reproduced and explained by planet…
Many discovered multiplanet systems are tightly packed. This implies that wide parameter ranges in masses and orbital elements can be dynamically unstable and ruled out. We present a case study of Kepler-23, a compact three-planet system…
Many features of the outer solar system are replicated in numerical simulations if the giant planets undergo an orbital instability that ejects one or more ice giants. During this instability, Jupiter and Saturn's orbits diverge, crossing…
Prior to the 1990s, speculations about the occurrence of planets around other stars were based only on planet formation theory, observations of circumstellar disks, and the knowledge that at least one seemingly ordinary star had managed to…
The limited completeness of the Kepler sample for planets with orbital periods $\gtrsim$ 1 yr leaves open the possibility that exoplanetary systems may host undetected giant planets. Should such planets exist, their dynamical interactions…
Many Kepler multiplanet systems have planet pairs near low-order, mean-motion resonances. In addition, many Kepler multiplanet systems have planets with orbital periods less than a few days. With the exception of Kepler-42, however, there…
We investigate the underlying distribution of orbital eccentricities for planets around early-to-mid M dwarf host stars. We employ a sample of 163 planets around early- to mid-M dwarfs across 101 systems detected by NASA's Kepler Mission.…
The Kepler-36 system consists of two planets that are spaced unusually close together, near the 7:6 mean motion resonance. While it is known that mean motion resonances can easily form by convergent migration, Kepler-36 is an extreme case…
At least 10-15% of nearby sun-like stars have known Jupiter-mass planets. In contrast, very few planets are found in mature open and globular clusters such as the Hyades and 47 Tuc. We explore here the possibility that this dichotomy is due…
The existence of planets orbiting a central binary star system immediately raises questions regarding their formation and dynamical evolution. Recent discoveries of circumbinary planets by the Kepler space telescope has shown that some of…
Transit surveys have revealed a significant population of compact multi-planet systems, containing several sub-Neptune-mass planets on close-in, tightly-packed orbits. These systems are thought to have formed through a final phase of giant…
Direct imaging searches have begun to detect planetary and brown dwarf companions and to place constraints on the presence of giant planets at large separations from their host star. This work helps to motivate such planet searches by…
In order to understand the relationship between planet multiplicity, mass, and composition, we present newly measured masses of five planets in two planetary systems: Kepler-323 and Kepler-104. We used the HIRES instrument at the W.M. Keck…
Recent Kepler observations revealed an unexpected abundance of "hot" Earth-size to Neptune-size planets in the inner ~0.02-0.2 AU from their parent stars. Another "oddity" of recent observations is the discovery of a hot jupiter planet…
The discovery of over 400 extrasolar planets allows us to statistically test our understanding of formation and dynamics of planetary systems via numerical simulations. Traditional N-body simulations of multiple-planet systems without gas…
We present the results of an extensive study of the detectability of Earth-sized planets and super-Earths in the habitable zones of cool and low-mass stars using transit timing variation method. We have considered a system consisting of a…
Most stars form in star clusters and stellar associated. To understand the roles of star cluster environments in shaping the dynamical evolution of planetary systems, we carry out direct $N$-body simulations of four planetary systems models…
We announce the discovery of a planetary system with 7 transiting planets around a Kepler target, a current record for transiting systems. Planets b, c, e and f are reported for the first time in this work. Planets d, g and h were…
The origin of warm Jupiters (gas giant planets with periods between 10 and 200 days) is an open question in exoplanet formation and evolution. We investigate a particular migration theory in which a warm Jupiter is coupled to a perturbing…