Related papers: A Preponderance of Perpendicular Planets
The obliquity of a star, or the angle between its spin axis and the average orbit normal of its companion planets, provides a unique constraint on that system's evolutionary history. Unlike the Solar System, where the Sun's equator is…
A significant proportion of exoplanets have been detected with highly tilted or even polar orbits relative to their host stars' equatorial planes. These unusual orbital configurations are often linked to post-disk secular interactions among…
A widely considered characteristic of extra-solar planetary systems has been a seeming tendency for major axes of adjacent orbits to librate in stable configurations. Based on a new catalog of extra-solar planets (Butler et al. 2006) and…
We present a pattern emerging from stellar obliquity measurements in single-star systems: planets with high planet-to-star mass ratios ($M_{\rm p}/M{_*}$$>$ $2\times10^{-3}$) -- such as super-Jupiters, brown dwarf companions, and M-dwarfs…
All extra-solar planet masses that have been derived spectroscopically are lower limits since the inclination of the orbit to our line-of-sight is unknown except for transiting systems. It is, however, possible to determine the inclination…
We describe statistical methods for measuring the exoplanet multiplicity function - the fraction of host stars containing a given number of planets - from transit and radial-velocity surveys. The analysis is based on the approximation of…
Many exoplanets in close-in orbits are observed to have relatively high eccentricities and large stellar obliquities. We explore the possibility that these result from planet-planet scattering by studying the dynamical outcomes from a large…
We measure the projected angle on the plane of the sky between adjacent symmetry axes of tens of multipolar planetary nebulae and find that the distribution of these misalignment angles implies a random three-dimensional angle distribution…
Important clues on the formation and evolution of planetary systems can be inferred from the stellar obliquity $\psi$. We study the distribution of obliquities using the California-Kepler Survey and the TEPCat Catalog of…
The angle between stellar spin axes and planetary orbits -- stellar obliquity -- probes the dynamics of planetary migration and evolution. The obliquities of giant planets have been extensively studied because they are the most easily…
Advances in asteroseismology of solar-like stars, now provide a unique method to estimate the stellar inclination $i_{\star}$. This enables to evaluate the spin-orbit angle of transiting planetary systems, in a complementary fashion to the…
The Sun's equator and the planets' orbital planes are nearly aligned, which is presumably a consequence of their formation from a single spinning gaseous disk. For exoplanetary systems this well-aligned configuration is not guaranteed:…
The distribution of stellar obliquities provides critical insight into the formation and evolution pathways of exoplanets. In the past decade, it was found that hot stars hosting hot Jupiters are more likely to have high obliquities than…
We report on spectroscopic and photometric observations through transits of the exoplanets WASP-22b and WASP-26b, intended to determine the systems' spin-orbit angles. We combine these data with existing data to refine the system…
Sub-Saturns have been reported to preferentially occupy near-polar orbits, but this conclusion has so far been based primarily on systems with cool host stars; obliquity measurements for sub-Saturns orbiting hot stars remain scarce.…
Multi-planet systems face significant challenges to detection. For example, further orbiting planets have reduced signal-to-noise ratio in radial velocity detection methods, and small mutual inclinations between planets can prevent them…
The rich wealth of observational data, and matching theoretical investigations, of the transiting planet of HD209458 stands in sharp contrast to systems for which only the radial velocity orbit is known. In this paper, I summarize the…
This decade has seen the first measurements of extrasolar planetary obliquities, characterizing how an exoplanet's spin axis is oriented relative to its orbital axis. These measurements are enabled by combining projected rotational…
High-inclination circumplanetary orbits that are gravitationally perturbed by the central star can undergo Kozai oscillations---large-amplitude, coupled variations in the orbital eccentricity and inclination. We first study how this effect…
The discovery of transiting extrasolar planets has enabled us a number of interesting stduies. Transit photometry reveals the radius and the orbital inclination of transiting planets, and thereby we can learn the true mass and the density…