Abstract
The stellar obliquity of a transiting planetary system can be constrained by combining measurements of the star's rotation period, radius, and projected rotational velocity. Here, we present a hierarchical Bayesian technique for recovering the obliquity distribution of a population of transiting planetary systems and apply it to a sample of 70 Kepler objects of interest. With ≈95% confidence, we find that the obliquities of stars with only a single detected transiting planet are systematically larger than those with multiple detected transiting planets. This suggests that a substantial fraction of Kepler's single-transiting systems represent dynamically hotter, less orderly systems than the "pancake-flat" multiple-transiting systems.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 47 |
Journal | Astrophysical Journal |
Volume | 796 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 20 2014 |
Externally published | Yes |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Space and Planetary Science
Keywords
- Methods: statistical
- Planetary systems
- Planets and satellites: general