The Orbital Eccentricity of Small Planet Systems

Vincent Van Eylen, Simon Albrecht, Xu Huang, Mariah G. Macdonald, Rebekah I. Dawson, Maxwell X. Cai, Daniel Foreman-Mackey, Mia S. Lundkvist, Victor Silva Aguirre, Ignas Snellen, Joshua N. Winn

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

162 Scopus citations

Abstract

We determine the orbital eccentricities of individual small Kepler planets, through a combination of asteroseismology and transit light-curve analysis. We are able to constrain the eccentricities of 51 systems with a single transiting planet, which supplement our previous measurements of 66 planets in multi-planet systems. Through a Bayesian hierarchical analysis, we find evidence that systems with only one detected transiting planet have a different eccentricity distribution than systems with multiple detected transiting planets. The eccentricity distribution of the single-transiting systems is well described by the positive half of a zero-mean Gaussian distribution with a dispersion σ e = 0.32 ± 0.06, while the multiple-transit systems are consistent with . A mixture model suggests a fraction of of single-transiting systems have a moderate eccentricity, represented by a Rayleigh distribution that peaks at . This finding may reflect differences in the formation pathways of systems with different numbers of transiting planets. We investigate the possibility that eccentricities are self-excited in closely packed planetary systems, as well as the influence of long-period giant companion planets. We find that both mechanisms can qualitatively explain the observations. We do not find any evidence for a correlation between eccentricity and stellar metallicity, as has been seen for giant planets. Neither do we find any evidence that orbital eccentricity is linked to the detection of a companion star. Along with this paper, we make available all of the parameters and uncertainties in the eccentricity distributions, as well as the properties of individual systems, for use in future studies.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number61
JournalAstronomical Journal
Volume157
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2019

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

Keywords

  • planets and satellites: dynamical evolution and stability
  • planets and satellites: formation
  • planets and satellites: fundamental parameters
  • planets and satellites: terrestrial planets
  • stars: oscillations (including pulsations)

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