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Resonant locking of two planets is an expected outcome of convergent disc migration. The planets subsequently migrate together as a resonant pair. In the context of circumbinary planets, the disc is truncated internally by the binary. If there were only a single planet, then this inner disc edge would provide a natural parking location. However, for two planets migrating together in resonance there will be a tension between the inner planet stopping at the disc edge, and the outer planet continuing to be torqued inwards. In this paper we study this effect, showing that the outcome is a function of the planet-planet mass ratio. Smaller outer planets tend to be parked in a stable exterior 2:1 or 3:2 resonance with the inner planet, which itself remains near the disc edge. Equal or larger mass outer planets tend to push the inner planet past the disc edge and too close to the binary, causing it to be ejected or sometimes flipped to an exterior orbit. Our simulations show that this process may explain an observed dearth of small (< 3 Earth radii) circumbinary planets, since small planets are frequently ejected or left on long-period orbits, for which transit detection is less likely. This may also be an efficient mechanism for producing free-floating planets and interstellar interlopers like `Oumuamua., Accepted by MNRAS March 14 2021 after second submission

Early analyses of exoplanet statistics from the Kepler Mission revealed that a model population of multiple-planet systems with low mutual inclinations (${\sim1^{\circ}-2^{\circ}}$) adequately describes the multiple-transiting systems but underpredicts the number of single-transiting systems. This so-called "Kepler dichotomy" signals the existence of a sub-population of multi-planet systems possessing larger mutual inclinations. However, the details of these inclinations remain uncertain. In this work, we derive constraints on the intrinsic mutual inclination distribution by statistically exploiting Transit Duration Variations (TDVs) of the Kepler planet population. When planetary orbits are mutually inclined, planet-planet interactions cause orbital precession, which can lead to detectable long-term changes in transit durations. These TDV signals are inclination-sensitive and have been detected for roughly two dozen Kepler planets. We compare the properties of the Kepler observed TDV detections to TDV detections of simulated planetary systems constructed from two population models with differing assumptions about the mutual inclination distribution. We find strong evidence for a continuous distribution of relatively low mutual inclinations that is well-characterized by a power law relationship between the median mutual inclination ($\tilde{\mu}_{i,n}$) and the intrinsic multiplicity ($n$): $\tilde{\mu}_{i,n} = \tilde{\mu}_{i,5}(n/5)^{\alpha}$, where $\tilde{\mu}_{i,5} = 1.10^{+0.15}_{-0.11}$ and $\alpha = -1.73^{+0.09}_{-0.08}$. These results suggest that late-stage planet assembly and possibly stellar oblateness are the dominant physical origins for the excitation of Kepler planet mutual inclinations., Comment: Accepted to AJ, 19 pages, 10 figures (excluding appendix)

We identify a set of planetary systems observed by Kepler that merit transit timing variation (TTV) analysis given the orbital periods of transiting planets, the uncertainties for their transit times and the number of transits observed during the Kepler mission. We confirm the planetary nature of 4 KOIs within multicandidate systems. We forward model each of the planetary systems identified to determine which systems are likely to yield mass constraints that may be significantly improved upon with follow-up transit observations. We find projected TTVs diverge by more than 90 minutes after 6000 days in 27 systems, including 22 planets with orbital periods exceeding 25 days. Such targets would benefit the most from additional transit timing data. TTV follow-up could push exoplanet characterization to lower masses, at greater orbital periods and at cooler equilibrium temperatures than is currently possible from the Kepler dataset alone. Combining TTVs and recently revised stellar parameters, we characterize an ensemble of homogeneously selected planets and identify planets in the Kepler field with large enough estimated transmission annuli for atmospheric characterization with JWST., 70 pages, 33 figures

Resonant planetary systems contain at least one planet pair with orbital periods librating at a near-integer ratio (2/1, 3/2, 4/3, etc.) and are a natural outcome of standard planetary formation theories. Systems with multiple adjacent resonant pairs are known as resonant chains and can exhibit three-body resonances -- characterized by a critical three-body angle. Here we study three-body angles as a diagnostic of resonant chains through tidally-damped N-body integrations. For each combination of the 2:1, 3:2, 4:3, and 5:4 mean motion resonances (the most common resonances in the known resonant chains), we characterize the three-body angle equilibria for several mass schemes, migration timescales, and initial separations. We find that under our formulation of the three-body angle, which does not reduce coefficients, 180 deg is the preferred libration center, and libration centers shifted away from 180 deg are associated with non-adjacent resonances. We then relate these angles to observables, by applying our general results to two transiting systems: Kepler-60 and Kepler-223. For these systems, we compare N-body models of the three-body angle to the zeroth order in e approximation accessible via transit phases, used in previous publications. In both cases, we find the three-body angle during the Kepler observing window is not necessarily indicative of the long-term oscillations and stress the role of dynamical models in investigating three-body angles. We anticipate our results will provide a useful diagnostic in the analysis of resonant chains., Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomical Journal

Holczer, Mazeh, and collaborators (HM+16) used the Kepler four-year observations to derive a transit-timing catalog, identifying 260 Kepler objects of interest (KOI) with significant transit timing variations (TTV). For KOIs with high enough SNRs, HM+16 also derived the duration and depth of their transits. In the present work, we use the duration measurements of HM+16 to systematically study the duration changes of 561 KOIs and identify 15 KOIs with a significant long-term linear change of transit durations and another 16 KOIs with an intermediate significance. We show that the observed linear trend is probably caused by a precession of the orbital plane of the transiting planet, induced in most cases by another planet. The leading term of the precession rate depends on the mass and relative inclination of the perturber, and the period ratio between the two orbits, but not on the mass and period of the transiting planet itself. Interestingly, our findings indicate that, as a sample, the detected time derivatives of the durations get larger as a function of the planetary orbital period, probably because short-period planetary systems display small relative inclinations. The results might indicate that short-period planets reside in relatively flattened planetary systems, suggesting these systems experienced stronger dissipation either when formed or when migrated to short orbits. This should be used as a possible clue for the formation of such systems., Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present results of a study on identifying circumbinary planet candidates that produce multiple transits during one conjunction with eclipsing binary systems. The occurrence of these transits enables us to estimate the candidates' orbital periods, which is crucial as the periods of the currently known transiting circumbinary planets are significantly longer than the typical observational baseline of TESS. Combined with the derived radii, it also provides valuable information needed for follow-up observations and subsequent confirmation of a large number of circumbinary planet candidates from TESS. Motivated by the discovery of the 1108-day circumbinary planet Kepler-1647, we show the application of this technique to four of Kepler's circumbinary planets that produce such transits. Our results indicate that in systems where the circumbinary planet is on a low-eccentricity orbit, the estimated planetary orbital period is within, 16 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, AJ accepted

We report the detection of the first circumbinary planet found by TESS. The target, a known eclipsing binary, was observed in sectors 1 through 12 at 30-minute cadence and in sectors 4 through 12 at two-minute cadence. It consists of two stars with masses of 1.1 MSun and 0.3 MSun on a slightly eccentric (0.16), 14.6-day orbit, producing prominent primary eclipses and shallow secondary eclipses. The planet has a radius of ~6.9 REarth and was observed to make three transits across the primary star of roughly equal depths (~0.2%) but different durations -- a common signature of transiting circumbinary planets. Its orbit is nearly circular (e ~ 0.09) with an orbital period of 95.2 days. The orbital planes of the binary and the planet are aligned to within ~1 degree. To obtain a complete solution for the system, we combined the TESS photometry with existing ground-based radial-velocity observations in a numerical photometric-dynamical model. The system demonstrates the discovery potential of TESS for circumbinary planets, and provides further understanding of the formation and evolution of planets orbiting close binary stars., Comment: 35 pages, 21 figures, 6 tables

We present the discovery of Kepler-88 d ($P_d = 1403\pm14$ days, $M\mathrm{sin}i_d = 965\pm44\,M_\oplus = 3.04\pm0.14\,M_J$, $e_d = 0.41\pm0.03$) based on six years of radial velocity (RV) follow-up from the W. M. Keck Observatory HIRES spectrograph. Kepler-88 has two previously identified planets. Kepler-88 b (KOI-142.01) transits in the NASA \Kepler\ photometry and has very large transit timing variations. \citet{Nesvorny2013} perfomed a dynamical analysis of the TTVs to uniquely identify the orbital period and mass of the perturbing planet (Kepler-88 c), which was later was confirmed with RVs from the Observatoire de Haute-Provence (OHP, Barros et al. 2014). To fully explore the architecture of this system, we performed photodynamical modeling on the \Kepler\ photometry combined with the RVs from Keck and OHP and stellar parameters from spectroscopy and Gaia. Planet d is not detectable in the photometry, and long-baseline RVs are needed to ascertain its presence. A photodynamical model simultaneously optimized to fit the RVs and \Kepler\ photometry yields the most precise planet masses and orbital properties yet for b and c: $P_b = 10.91647\pm0.00014\,\mathrm{days}$, $M_b=9.5\pm1.2\,M_\oplus$, $P_c=22.2649\pm0.0007\,\mathrm{days}$, and $M_c=214.1\pm5.3\,M_\oplus$. The photodynamical solution also finds that planets b and c have low eccentricites and low mutual inclination, are apsidally anti-aligned, and have conjunctions on the same hemisphere of the star. Continued RV follow-up of systems with small planets will improve our understanding of the link between inner planetary system architectures and giant planets., 25 pages, 14 figures, published in AJ

No circumbinary planets have been discovered smaller than 3 Earth radii, yet planets of this small size comprise over 75% of the discoveries around single stars. The observations do not prove the non-existence of small circumbinary planets, but rather they are much harder to find than around single stars, because their transit timing variations are much larger than the transit durations. We present STANLEY: an automated algorithm to find small circumbinary planets. It employs custom methods to detrend eclipsing binary light curves and stack shallow transits of variable duration and interval using N-body integrations. Applied to the Kepler circumbinaries, we recover all known planets, including the three planets of Kepler-47, and constrain the absence of additional planets of similar or smaller size. We also show that we could have detected < 3 Earth radii planets in half of the known systems. Our work will ultimately be applied to a broad sample of eclipsing binaries to (hopefully) produce new discoveries, and derive a circumbinary size distribution which can be compared to that for single stars., Under review at ApJ after responding to first referee report. 32 pages. 17 figures (some pretty)

Ultra-short period planets provide a window into the inner edge of the parameter space occupied by planetary orbits. In one particularly intriguing class of multi-planet systems, the ultra-short period planet is flanked by short-period companions, and the outer planets occupy a discernibly distinct dynamical state. In the observational database, this phenomenon is represented by a small number of stars hosting systems of tightly packed co-planar planets as well as an ultra-short period planet, whose orbit of is misaligned relative to the mutual plane of the former. In this work, we explore two different mechanisms that can produce an ultra-short period planet that is misaligned with the rest of its compact planetary system: natural decoupling between the inner and outer system via the stellar quadrupole moment, and decoupling forced by an external companion with finely-tuned orbital parameters. These two processes operate with different timescales, and can thus occur simultaneously. In this work, we use the K2-266 system as an illustrative example to elucidate the dynamics of these two processes, and highlight the types of constraints that may arise regarding the dynamical histories of systems hosting ultra-short period planets., Comment: Accepted to AJ

We propose several descriptive measures to characterize the arrangements of planetary masses, periods, and mutual inclinations within exoplanetary systems. These measures are based in complexity theory and capture the global, system-level trends of each architecture. Our approach considers all planets in a system simultaneously, facilitating both intra-system and inter-system analysis. We find that based on these measures, Kepler's high-multiplicity ($N\geq3$) systems can be explained if most systems belong to a single intrinsic population, with a subset of high-multiplicity systems ($\sim20\%$) hosting additional, undetected planets intermediate in period between the known planets. We confirm prior findings that planets within a system tend to be roughly the same size and approximately coplanar. We find that forward modeling has not yet reproduced the high degree of spacing similarity (in log-period) actually seen in the Kepler data. Although our classification scheme was developed using compact Kepler multis as a test sample, our methods can be immediately applied to any other population of exoplanetary systems. We apply this classification scheme to (1) quantify the similarity between systems, (2) resolve observational biases from physical trends, and (3) identify which systems to search for additional planets and where to look for these planets., Comment: 18 pages, submitted to AJ. Comments welcome

Wide-orbit exoplanets are starting to be detected, and planetary formation models are under development to understand their properties. We propose a population of "Oort" planets around other stars, forming by a mechanism analogous to how the Solar System's Oort cloud of comets was populated. Gravitational scattering among planets is inferred from the eccentricity distribution of gas-giant exoplanets measured by the Doppler technique. This scattering is thought to commence while the protoplanetary disk is dissipating, $10^6-10^7$ yr after formation of the star, or perhaps soon thereafter, when the majority of stars are expected to be part of a natal cluster. Previous calculations of planet-planet scattering around isolated stars have one or more planets spending $10^4-10^7$ yr at distances >100 AU before ultimately being ejected. During that time, a close flyby of another star in the cluster may dynamically lift the periastron of the planet, ending further scattering with the inner planets. We present numerical simulations demonstrating this mechanism as well as an analysis of the efficiency. We estimate an occurrence of planets between 100 and 5000 AU by this mechanism to be, 15 pages, 11 figures, submitted to AJ

We have collected transit times for the TRAPPIST-1 system with the Spitzer Space Telescope over four years. We add to these ground-based, HST, and K2 transit-time measurements, and revisit an N-body dynamical analysis of the seven-planet system using our complete set of times from which we refine the mass ratios of the planets to the star. We next carry out a photodynamical analysis of the Spitzer light curves to derive the density of the host star and the planet densities. We find that all seven planets’ densities may be described with a single rocky mass–radius relation which is depleted in iron relative to Earth, with Fe 21 wt% versus 32 wt% for Earth, and otherwise Earth-like in composition. Alternatively, the planets may have an Earth-like composition but enhanced in light elements, such as a surface water layer or a core-free structure with oxidized iron in the mantle. We measure planet masses to a precision of 3%–5%, equivalent to a radial-velocity (RV) precision of 2.5 cm s−1, or two orders of magnitude more precise than current RV capabilities. We find the eccentricities of the planets are very small, the orbits are extremely coplanar, and the system is stable on 10 Myr timescales. We find evidence of infrequent timing outliers, which we cannot explain with an eighth planet; we instead account for the outliers using a robust likelihood function. We forecast JWST timing observations and speculate on possible implications of the planet densities for the formation, migration, and evolution of the planet system.

Of the nine confirmed transiting circumbinary planet systems, only Kepler-47 is known to contain more than one planet. Kepler-47 b (the "inner planet") has an orbital period of 49.5 days and a radius of about $3\,R_{\oplus}$. Kepler-47 c (the "outer planet") has an orbital period of 303.2 days and a radius of about $4.7\,R_{\oplus}$. Here we report the discovery of a third planet, Kepler-47 d (the "middle planet"), which has an orbital period of 187.4 days and a radius of about $7\,R_{\oplus}$. The presence of the middle planet allows us to place much better constraints on the masses of all three planets, where the $1\sigma$ ranges are less than $26\,M_{\oplus}$, between $7-43\,M_{\oplus}$, and between $2-5\,M_{\oplus}$ for the inner, middle, and outer planets, respectively. The middle and outer planets have low bulk densities, with $\rho_{\rm middle} < 0.68$ g cm$^{-3}$ and $\rho_{\rm outer} < 0.26$ g cm$^{-3}$ at the $1\sigma$ level. The two outer planets are "tightly packed," assuming the nominal masses, meaning no other planet could stably orbit between them. All of the orbits have low eccentricities and are nearly coplanar, disfavoring violent scattering scenarios and suggesting gentle migration in the protoplanetary disk., Comment: 68 pages, 30 figures

A Neptune-sized exomoon candidate was recently announced by Teachey & Kipping, orbiting a 287 day gas giant in the Kepler-1625 system. However, the system is poorly characterized and needs more observations to be confirmed, with the next potential transit in 2019 May. In this Letter, we aid observational follow up by analyzing the transit signature of exomoons. We derive a simple analytic equation for the transit probability and use it to demonstrate how exomoons may frequently avoid transit if their orbit is larger than the stellar radius and sufficiently misaligned. The nominal orbit for the moon in Kepler-1625 has both of these characteristics, and we calculate that it may only transit roughly 40% of the time. This means that approximately six non-transits would be required to rule out the moon's existence at 95% confidence. When an exomoon's impact parameter is displaced off the star, the planet's impact parameter is displaced the other way, so larger planet transit durations are typically positively correlated with missed exomoon transits. On the other hand, strong correlations do not exist between missed exomoon transits and transit timing variations of the planet. We also show that nodal precession does not change an exomoon's transit probability and that it can break a prograde-retrograde degeneracy., Accepted at ApJ Letters

Planet-planet perturbations can cause planets' orbital elements to change on secular timescales. Previous work has evaluated the nodal precession rate for planets in the limit of low $\alpha$ (semi-major axis ratio, 0$, Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures, submitted to AJ

Transit timing variations (TTV) in multi-transiting systems enables precise characterizations of low-mass planets and their orbits. The range of orbital periods and incident fluxes with detailed TTV constraints complements the radial velocity sample for low-mass planets, pushing exoplanet characterization to the regime sub-Earth size planets and out to Mercury-like distances. This has revealed an astonishing diversity in the density of super-Earth mass planets. We summarize these and other contributions to exoplanet science from TTVs.

The HR 8799 system uniquely harbors four young super-Jupiters whose orbits can provide insights into the system's dynamical history and constrain the masses of the planets themselves. Using the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI), we obtained down to one milliarcsecond precision on the astrometry of these planets. We assessed four-planet orbit models with different levels of constraints and found that assuming the planets are near 1:2:4:8 period commensurabilities, or are coplanar, does not worsen the fit. We added the prior that the planets must have been stable for the age of the system (40 Myr) by running orbit configurations from our posteriors through $N$-body simulations and varying the masses of the planets. We found that only assuming the planets are both coplanar and near 1:2:4:8 period commensurabilities produces dynamically stable orbits in large quantities. Our posterior of stable coplanar orbits tightly constrains the planets' orbits, and we discuss implications for the outermost planet b shaping the debris disk. A four-planet resonance lock is not necessary for stability up to now. However, planet pairs d and e, and c and d, are each likely locked in two-body resonances for stability if their component masses are above $6~M_{\rm{Jup}}$ and $7~M_{\rm{Jup}}$, respectively. Combining the dynamical and luminosity constraints on the masses using hot-start evolutionary models and a system age of $42 \pm 5$~Myr, we found the mass of planet b to be $5.8 \pm 0.5~M_{\rm{Jup}}$, and the masses of planets c, d, and e to be $7.2_{-0.7}^{+0.6}~M_{\rm{Jup}}$ each., 21 pages, 10 figures, accepted to AJ

The outer architectures of Kepler's compact systems of multiple transiting planets remain poorly constrained and few of these systems have lower bounds on the orbital distance of any massive outer planets. We infer a minimum orbital distance and upper limits on the inclination of a hypothetical Jovian-mass planet orbiting exterior to the six transiting planets at Kepler-11. Our constraints are derived from dynamical models together with observations provided by the Kepler mission. Firstly, the lack of transit timing variations (TTV) in the outermost transiting planet Kepler-11 g imply that the system does not contain a Jovian mass perturber within 2 AU from the star. Secondly, we test under what initial conditions a Jovian-mass planet moderately inclined from the transiting planets would make their co-transiting configuration unlikely. The transiting planets are secularly coupled and exhibit small mutual inclinations over long time-scales, although the outermost transiting planet, Kepler-11 g is weakly coupled to the inner five. We rule out a Jovian-mass planet on a 3 degree inclination within 3.0 AU, and higher inclinations out to further orbital distances, unless an undetected planet exists orbiting in the dynamical gap between Kepler-11 f and Kepler-11 g. Our constraints depend little on whether we assume the six transiting planets of Kepler-11 were initially perfectly co-planar or whether a minimum initial mutual inclination between the transiting planets is adopted based on the measured impact parameters of the transiting planets., 33 pages, 9 figures

Kepler-444 is a five planet system around a host-star approximately 11 billion years old. The five transiting planets all have sub-Earth radii and are in a compact configuration with orbital periods between 3 and 10 days. Here we present a transit-timing analysis of the system using the full Kepler data set in order to determine the masses of the planets. Two planets, Kepler-444 d ($M_\mathrm{d}=0.036^{+0.065}_{-0.020}M_\oplus$) and Kepler-444 e ($M_\mathrm{e}=0.034^{+0.059}_{-0.019}M_\oplus $), have confidently detected masses due to their proximity to resonance which creates transit timing variations. The mass ratio of these planets combined with the magnitude of possible star-planet tidal effects suggests that smooth disk migration over a significant distance is unlikely to have brought the system to its currently observed orbital architecture without significant post-formation perturbations., Accepted for publication in ApJL

The Kepler mission revealed a class of planets known as ''super-puffs,'' with masses only a few times larger than Earth's but radii larger than Neptune, giving them very low mean densities. All three of the known planets orbiting the young solar-type star Kepler 51 are super-puffs. The Kepler 51 system thereby provides an opportunity for a comparative study of the structures and atmospheres of this mysterious class of planets, which may provide clues about their formation and evolution. We observed two transits each of Kepler 51b and 51d with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the Hubble Space Telescope. Combining new WFC3 transit times with re-analyzed Kepler data and updated stellar parameters, we confirmed that all three planets have densities lower than 0.1 g/cm$^{3}$. We measured the WFC3 transmission spectra to be featureless between 1.15 and 1.63 $\mu$m, ruling out any variations greater than 0.6 scale heights (assuming a H/He dominated atmosphere), thus showing no significant water absorption features. We interpreted the flat spectra as the result of a high-altitude aerosol layer (pressure $, Comment: 29 pages, 16 figures, Re-submitted to AJ

We examine the ability of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to detect and improve our understanding of planetary systems in the Kepler field. By modeling the expected transits of all confirmed and candidate planets detected by Kepler as expected to be observed by TESS, we find that TESS has a greater than 50% chance of detecting 260 of these planets at the 3 sigma level in one sector of observations and an additional 120 planets in two sectors. Most of these are large planets in short orbits around their host stars, although a small number of rocky planets are expected to be recovered. Most of these systems have only one known transiting planet; in only ~5 percent of known multiply-transiting systems do we anticipate more than one planet to be recovered. When these planets are recovered, we expect TESS to be a powerful tool to characterizing transit timing variations. Using Kepler-88 (KOI-142) as an example, we show that TESS will improve measurements of planet-star mass ratios and orbital parameters, and significantly reduce the transit timing uncertainty in future years. Since TESS will be most sensitive to hot Jupiters, we research whether TESS will be able to detect tidal orbital decay in these systems. We find two confirmed planetary systems (Kepler-2 b and Kepler-13 b) and five candidate systems that will be good candidates to detect tidal decay., Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, submitted to AAS journals

We present the detection of five planets—Kepler-62b, c, d, e, and f—of size 1.31, 0.54, 1.95, 1.61 and 1.41 Earth radii (R[subscript ⊕]), orbiting a K2V star at periods of 5.7, 12.4, 18.2, 122.4, and 267.3 days, respectively. The outermost planets, Kepler-62e and -62f, are super–Earth-size (1.25 R[subscript ⊕] < planet radius ≤ 2.0 R[subscript ⊕]) planets in the habitable zone of their host star, respectively receiving 1.2 ± 0.2 times and 0.41 ± 0.05 times the solar flux at Earth’s orbit. Theoretical models of Kepler-62e and -62f for a stellar age of ~7 billion years suggest that both planets could be solid, either with a rocky composition or composed of mostly solid water in their bulk., United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Kepler Participating Scientist Program Grant NNX12AC76G)

The angle between the spin axis of the host star and the orbit of its planets (i.e., the stellar obliquity) is precious info rmation about the formation and evolution of exoplanetary systems. Measurements of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect revealed that many stars that host a hot-Jupiter have high obliquities, su ggesting that hot-Jupiter formation involves excitation o f orbital inclinations. In this contribution we show how the passage of the planet over starspots can be used to measure the obliquity of exoplanetary systems. This technique is used to obtain - for the first time - the obliquity of a system with several plane ts that lie in a disk, Kepler-30, with the result that the star ha s an obliquity smaller than 10 degrees. The implications for the formation of exoplanetary systems, in particular the hot-J upiter population, are also discussed. Copyright line will be provided by the publisher

We present evidence that the recently discovered, directly-imaged planet HD 131399 Ab is a background star with non-zero proper motion. From new JHK1L' photometry and spectroscopy obtained with the Gemini Planet Imager, VLT/SPHERE, and Keck/NIRC2, and a reanalysis of the discovery data obtained with VLT/SPHERE, we derive colors, spectra, and astrometry for HD 131399 Ab. The broader wavelength coverage and higher data quality allow us to re-investigate its status. Its near-infrared spectral energy distribution excludes spectral types later than L0 and is consistent with a K or M dwarf, which are the most likely candidates for a background object in this direction at the apparent magnitude observed. If it were a physically associated object, the projected velocity of HD 131399 Ab would exceed escape velocity given the mass and distance to HD 131399 A. We show that HD 131399 Ab is also not following the expected track for a stationary background star at infinite distance. Solving for the proper motion and parallax required to explain the relative motion of HD 131399 Ab, we find a proper motion of 12.3 mas/yr. When compared to predicted background objects drawn from a galactic model, we find this proper motion to be high, but consistent with the top 4% fastest-moving background stars. From our analysis we conclude that HD 131399 Ab is a background K or M dwarf., 35 pages, 20 figures, Published in AJ

The TRAPPIST-1 system is the first transiting planet system found orbiting an ultra-cool dwarf star. At least seven planets similar to Earth in radius and in mass were previously found to transit this host star. Subsequently, TRAPPIST-1 was observed as part of the K2 mission and, with these new data, we report the measurement of an 18.77 d orbital period for the outermost planet, TRAPPIST-1h, which was unconstrained until now. This value matches our theoretical expectations based on Laplace relations and places TRAPPIST-1h as the seventh member of a complex chain, with three-body resonances linking every member. We find that TRAPPIST-1h has a radius of 0.727 Earth radii and an equilibrium temperature of 173 K. We have also measured the rotational period of the star at 3.3 d and detected a number of flares consistent with a low-activity, middle-aged, late M dwarf., 42 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables

The six planets of the Kepler-11 system are the archetypal example of a population of surprisingly low-density transiting planets revealed by the Kepler mission. We have determined the fundamental parameters and chemical composition of the Kepler-11 host star to unprecedented precision using an extremely high quality spectrum from Keck-HIRES (R$\simeq$67,000, S/N per pixel$\simeq$260 at 600 nm). Contrary to previously published results, our spectroscopic constraints indicate that Kepler-11 is a young main-sequence solar twin. The revised stellar parameters and new analysis raise the densities of the Kepler-11 planets by between 20-95% per planet, making them more typical of the emerging class of "puffy" close-in exoplanets. We obtain photospheric abundances of 22 elements and find that Kepler-11 has an abundance pattern similar to that of the Sun with a slightly higher overall metallicity. We additionally analyze the Kepler lightcurves using a photodynamical model and discuss the tension between spectroscopic and transit/TTV-based stellar density estimates., 15 pages, 7 figures; ApJ accepted version

Hi'iaka is the larger outer satellite of the dwarf planet Haumea. Using relative photometry from the Hubble Space Telescope and Magellan and a phase dispersion minimization analysis, we have identified the rotation period of Hi'iaka to be ~9.8 hrs (double-peaked). This is ~120 times faster than its orbital period, creating new questions about the formation of this system and possible tidal evolution. The rapid rotation suggests that Hi'iaka could have a significant obliquity and spin precession that could be visible in light curves within a few years. We then turn to an investigation of what we learn about the (presently unclear) formation of the Haumea system and family based on this unexpectedly rapid rotation rate. We explore the importance of the initial semi-major axis and rotation period in tidal evolution theory and find they strongly influence the time required to despin to synchronous rotation, relevant to understanding a wide variety of satellite and binary systems. We find that despinning tides do not necessarily lead to synchronous spin periods for Hi'iaka, even if it formed near the Roche limit. Therefore the short rotation period of Hi'iaka does not rule out significant tidal evolution. Hi'iaka's spin period is also consistent with formation near its current location and spin up due to Haumea-centric impactors., 21 pages with 6 figures, to be published in The Astronomical Journal

Chaotic dynamics are expected during and after planet formation, and a leading mechanism to explain large eccentricities of gas giant exoplanets is planet-planet gravitational scattering. The same scattering has been invoked to explain misalignments of planetary orbital planes with respect to their host star's spin. However, an observational puzzle is presented by Kepler-56, which has two inner planets (b and c) that are nearly coplanar with each other, yet are more than 45 degrees inclined to their star's equator. Thus the spin-orbit misalignment might be primordial. Instead, we further develop the hypothesis in the discovery paper, that planets on wider orbits generated misalignment through scattering, and as a result gently torqued the inner planets away from the equator plane of the star. We integrated the equations of motion for Kepler-56 b and c along with an unstable outer system initialized with either two or three Jupiter-mass planets. We address here whether the violent scattering that generates large mutual inclinations can leave the inner system intact, tilting it gently. In almost all of the cases initially with two outer planets, either the inner planets remain nearly coplanar with each other in the star's equator plane, or they are scattered violently to high mutual inclination and high spin-orbit misalignment. On the contrary, of the systems with three unstable outer planets, a spin-orbit misalignment large enough to explain the observations is generated 28% of the time for coplanar inner planets, which is consistent with the observed frequency of this phenomenon reported so far. We conclude that multiple-planet scattering in the outer parts of the system may account for this new population of coplanar planets hosted by oblique stars., 10 pages, 16 figures, 3 tables. Revised according to a positive referee report. Comments welcome

Kepler has discovered hundreds of systems with multiple transiting exoplanets which hold tremendous potential both individually and collectively for understanding the formation and evolution of planetary systems. Many of these systems consist of multiple small planets with periods less than ~50 days known as Systems with Tightly-spaced Inner Planets, or STIPs. One especially intriguing STIP, Kepler-80 (KOI-500), contains five transiting planets: f, d, e, b, and c with periods of 1.0, 3.1, 4.6, 7.1, 9.5 days, respectively. We provide measurements of transit times and a transit timing variation (TTV) dynamical analysis. We find that TTVs cannot reliably detect eccentricities for this system, though mass estimates are not affected. Restricting the eccentricity to a reasonable range, we infer masses for the outer four planets (d, e, b, and c) to be $6.75^{+0.69}_{-0.51}$, $4.13^{+0.81}_{-0.95}$, $6.93^{+1.05}_{-0.70}$, and $6.74^{+1.23}_{-0.86}$ Earth masses, respectively. The similar masses but different radii are consistent with terrestrial compositions for d and e and $\sim$2% H/He envelopes for b and c. We confirm that the outer four planets are in a rare dynamical configuration with four interconnected three-body resonances that are librating with few degree amplitudes. We present a formation model that can reproduce the observed configuration by starting with a multi-resonant chain and introducing dissipation. Overall, the information-rich Kepler-80 planets provide an important perspective into exoplanetary systems., Accepted to AJ. 19 pages, 7 figures. Additional animations available here[http://mmacdonald.altervista.org/kepler-80.html]

We present a new transit timing catalog of 2599 Kepler Objects of Interest (=KOIs), using the PDC-MAP long-cadence light curves that include the full seventeen quarters of the mission (ftp://wise- ftp.tau.ac.il/pub/tauttv/TTV/ver_112). The goal is to produce an easy-to-use catalog that can stimulate further analyses of interesting systems. For 779 KOIs with high enough SNRs, we derived the timing, duration and depth of 69,914 transits. For 1820 KOIs with lower SNR, we derived only the timing of 225,273 transits. After removal of outlier timings, we derived various statistics for each KOI that were used to indicate significant variations. Including systems found by previous works, we have detected 260 KOIs which showed significant TTVs with long-term variations (>100 day), and another fourteen KOIs with periodic modulations shorter than 100 day and small amplitudes. For five of those, the periodicity is probably due to the crossing of rotating stellar spots by the transiting planets., 81 pages, 34 figures, 8 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJS

We infer dynamical masses in eight multiplanet systems using transit times measured from Kepler's complete data set, including short-cadence data where available. Of the 18 dynamical masses that we infer, 10 pass multiple tests for robustness. These are in systems Kepler-26 (KOI-250), Kepler-29 (KOI-738), Kepler-60 (KOI-2086), Kepler-105 (KOI-115), and Kepler-307 (KOI-1576). Kepler-105 c has a radius of 1.3 R ⊕ and a density consistent with an Earth-like composition. Strong transit timing variation (TTV) signals were detected from additional planets, but their inferred masses were sensitive to outliers or consistent solutions could not be found with independently measured transit times, including planets orbiting Kepler-49 (KOI-248), Kepler-57 (KOI-1270), Kepler-105 (KOI-115), and Kepler-177 (KOI-523). Nonetheless, strong upper limits on the mass of Kepler-177 c imply an extremely low density of ∼0.1 g cm−3. In most cases, individual orbital eccentricities were poorly constrained owing to degeneracies in TTV inversion. For five planet pairs in our sample, strong secular interactions imply a moderate to high likelihood of apsidal alignment over a wide range of possible eccentricities. We also find solutions for the three planets known to orbit Kepler-60 in a Laplace-like resonance chain. However, nonlibrating solutions also match the transit timing data. For six systems, we calculate more precise stellar parameters than previously known, enabling useful constraints on planetary densities where we have secure mass measurements. Placing these exoplanets on the mass–radius diagram, we find that a wide range of densities is observed among sub-Neptune-mass planets and that the range in observed densities is anticorrelated with incident flux.

The multiple-planet systems discovered by the Kepler mission show an excess of planet pairs with period ratios just wide of exact commensurability for first-order resonances like 2:1 and 3:2. In principle, these planet pairs could be in resonance if their orbital eccentricities are sufficiently small, because the width of first-order resonances diverges in the limit of vanishingly small eccentricity. We consider a widely-held scenario in which pairs of planets were captured into first-order resonances by migration due to planet-disk interactions, and subsequently became detached from the resonances, due to tidal dissipation in the planets. In the context of this scenario, we find a constraint on the ratio of the planet's tidal dissipation function and Love number that implies that some of the Kepler planets are likely solid. However, tides are not strong enough to move many of the planet pairs to the observed separations, suggesting that additional processes are at play.

We present the results of a search for planetary companions orbiting near hot Jupiter planet candidates (Jupiter-size candidates with orbital periods near 3 days) identified in the Kepler data through its sixth quarter of science operations. Special emphasis is given to companions between the 2:1 interior and exterior mean-motion resonances. A photometric transit search excludes companions with sizes ranging from roughly 2/3 to 5 times the size of the Earth, depending upon the noise properties of the target star. A search for dynamically induced deviations from a constant period (transit timing variations or TTVs) also shows no significant signals. In contrast, comparison studies of warm Jupiters (with slightly larger orbits) and hot Neptune-size candidates do exhibit signatures of additional companions with these same tests. These differences between hot Jupiters and other planetary systems denote a distinctly different formation or dynamical history., Printed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/04/30/1120970109.abstract). This version is formatted in ApJ style, 11 pages

We have analysed radial velocity measurements for known transiting exoplanets to study the empirical signature of tidal orbital evolution for close-in planets. Compared to standard eccentricity determination, our approach is modified to focus on the rejection of the null hypothesis of a circular orbit. We are using a MCMC analysis of radial velocity measurements and photometric constraints, including a component of correlated noise, as well as Bayesian model selection to check if the data justifies the additional complexity of an eccentric orbit. We find that among planets with non-zero eccentricity values quoted in the literature, there is no evidence for an eccentricity detection for the 7 planets CoRoT-5b, WASP-5b, WASP-6b, WASP-10b, WASP-12b, WASP-17b, and WASP-18b. In contrast, we confirm the eccentricity of HAT-P-16b, e=0.034\pm0.003, the smallest eccentricity that is reliably measured so far for an exoplanet as well as that of WASP-14b, which is the planet at the shortest period (P=2.24 d), with a confirmed eccentricity, e= 0.088\pm0.003. As part of the study, we present new radial velocity data using the HARPS spectrograph for CoRoT-1, CoRoT-3, WASP-2, WASP-4, WASP-5 and WASP-7 as well as the SOPHIE spectrograph for HAT-P-4, HAT-P-7, TrES-2 and XO-2. We show that the dissipative effect of tides raised in the planet by the star and vice-versa explain all the eccentricity and spin-orbit alignment measurements available for transiting planets. We revisit the mass-period relation (Mazeh et al. 2005, Pont 2011) and consider its relation to the stopping mechanism of orbital migration for hot Jupiters. In addition to CoRoT-2 and HD 189733 (Pont 2009), we find evidence for excess rotation of the star in the systems CoRoT-18, HAT-P-20, WASP-19 and WASP-43.

We present a method to confirm the planetary nature of objects in systems with multiple transiting exoplanet candidates. This method involves a Fourier-Domain analysis of the deviations in the transit times from a constant period that result from dynamical interactions within the system. The combination of observed anti-correlations in the transit times and mass constraints from dynamical stability allow us to claim the discovery of four planetary systems Kepler-25, Kepler-26, Kepler-27, and Kepler-28, containing eight planets and one additional planet candidate.

Most Sun-like stars in the Galaxy reside in gravitationally bound pairs of stars (binaries). Although long anticipated, the existence of a 'circumbinary planet' orbiting such a pair of normal stars was not definitively established until the discovery of the planet transiting (that is, passing in front of) Kepler-16. Questions remained, however, about the prevalence of circumbinary planets and their range of orbital and physical properties. Here we report two additional transiting circumbinary planets: Kepler-34 (AB)b and Kepler-35 (AB)b, referred to here as Kepler-34 b and Kepler-35 b, respectively. Each is a low-density gas-giant planet on an orbit closely aligned with that of its parent stars. Kepler-34 b orbits two Sun-like stars every 289 days, whereas Kepler-35 b orbits a pair of smaller stars (89% and 81% of the Sun's mass) every 131 days. The planets experience large multi-periodic variations in incident stellar radiation arising from the orbital motion of the stars. The observed rate of circumbinary planets in our sample implies that more than ∼1% of close binary stars have giant planets in nearly coplanar orbits, yielding a Galactic population of at least several million.

We present a hierarchical triple star system (KIC 9140402) where a low mass eclipsing binary orbits a more massive third star. The orbital period of the binary (4.98829 Days) is determined by the eclipse times seen in photometry from NASA's Kepler spacecraft. The periodically changing tidal field, due to the eccentric orbit of the binary about the tertiary, causes a change in the orbital period of the binary. The resulting eclipse timing variations provide insight into the dynamics and architecture of this system and allow the inference of the total mass of the binary ($0.424 \pm 0.017 \text{M}_\odot$) and the orbital parameters of the binary about the central star.

The two dominant features in the distribution of orbital parameters for close-in exoplanets are the prevalence of circular orbits for very short periods, and the observation that planets on closer orbits tend to be heavier. The first feature is interpreted as a signature of tidal evolution, while the origin of the second, a "mass-period relation" for hot Jupiters, is not understood. In this paper we re-consider the ensemble properties of transiting exoplanets with well-measured parameters, focussing on orbital eccentricity and the mass-period relation. We recalculate the constraints on eccentricity in a homogeneous way, using new radial-velocity data, with particular attention to statistical biases. We find that planets on circular orbits gather in a well-defined region of the mass-period plane, close to the minimum period for any given mass. Exceptions to this pattern reported in the Literature can be attributed to statistical biases. The ensemble data is compatible with classical tide theory with orbital circularisation caused by tides raised on the planet, and suggest that tidal circularisation and the stopping mechanisms for close-in planets are closely related to each other. The position mass-period relation is compatible with a relation between a planet's Hill radius and its present orbit.

The Kepler spacecraft has been monitoring the light from 150,000 stars in its primary quest to detect transiting exoplanets. Here we report on the detection of an eclipsing stellar hierarchical triple, identified in the Kepler photometry. KOI-126 (A,(B, C)), is composed of a low-mass binary (masses M_B = 0.2413+/-0.0030 M_Sun, M_C = 0.2127+/-0.0026 M_Sun; radii R_B = 0.2543+/-0.0014 R_Sun, R_C = 0.2318+/-0.0013 R_Sun; orbital period P_1 = 1.76713+/-0.00019 days) on an eccentric orbit about a third star (mass M_A = 1.347+/-0.032 M_Sun; radius R_A = 2.0254+/-0.0098 R_Sun; period of orbit around the low-mass binary P_2 = 33.9214+/-0.0013 days; eccentricity of that orbit e_2 = 0.3043+/-0.0024). The low-mass pair probe the poorly sampled fully-convective stellar domain offering a crucial benchmark for theoretical stellar models., Comment: To be published in Science on 2/4/2011. Announced at Jan. 2011 AAS meeting and made available on Science Express. Includes Supporting Online Material

Most short period transiting exoplanets have circular orbits, as expected from an estimation of the circularisation timescale using classical tidal theory. Interestingly, a small number of short period transiting exoplanets seem to have orbits with a small eccentricity. Such systems are valuable as they may indicate that some key physics is missing from formation and evolution models. We have analysed the results of a campaign of radial velocity measurements of known transiting planets with the SOPHIE and HARPS spectrographs using Bayesian methods and obtained new constraints on the orbital elements of 12 known transiting exoplanets. We also reanalysed the radial velocity data for another 42 transiting systems and show that some of the eccentric orbits reported in the Literature are compatible with a circular orbit. As a result, we show that the systems with circular and eccentric orbits are clearly separated on a plot of the planetary mass versus orbital period. We also show that planets following the trend where heavier hot Jupiters have shorter orbital periods (the “mass-period relation” of hot Jupiters), also tend to have circular orbits, with no confirmed exception to this rule so far.