A window on exoplanet dynamical histories: Rossiter-McLaughlin observations of WASP-13b and WASP-32b

R. D. Brothwell, C. A. Watson, G. Hébrard, A. H. M. J. Triaud, H. M. Cegla, A. Santerne, E. Hébrard, D. R. Anderson, D. Pollacco, E. K. Simpson, F. Bouchy, D. J. A. Brown, Y. Gómez Maqueo Chew, A. Collier Cameron, D. J. Armstrong, S. C. C. Barros, J. Bento, J. Bochinski, V. Burwitz, R. BusuttilL. Delrez, A. P. Doyle, F. Faedi, A. Fumel, M. Gillon, C. A. Haswell, C. Hellier, E. Jehin, U. Kolb, M. Lendl, C. Liebig, P. F. L. Maxted, J. McCormac, G. R. M. Miller, A. J. Norton, F. Pepe, D. Queloz, J. Rodríguez, D. Ségransan, I. Skillen, B. Smalley, K. G. Stassun, S. Udry, R. G. West, P. J. Wheatley

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We present Rossiter-McLaughlin observations of WASP-13b and WASP-32b and determine the sky-projected angle between the normal of the planetary orbit and the stellar rotation axis (λ). WASP-13b and WASP-32b both have prograde orbits and are consistent with alignment with measured sky-projected angles of λ = 8º+13-12 and λ = -2º+17-19, respectively. Both WASP-13 and WASP-32 have Teff < 6250 K, and therefore, these systems support the general trend that aligned planetary systems are preferentially found orbiting cool host stars. A Lomb-Scargle periodogram analysis was carried out on archival SuperWASP data for both systems. A statistically significant stellar rotation period detection (above 99.9 per cent confidence) was identified for the WASP-32 system with Prot = 11.6 ± 1.0 days. This rotation period is in agreement with the predicted stellar rotation period calculated from the stellar radius, R*, and vsin i if a stellar inclination of i* = 90º is assumed. With the determined rotation period, the true 3D angle between the stellar rotation axis and the planetary orbit, ψ, was found to be ψ = 11º ± 14º. We conclude with a discussion on the alignment of systems around cool host stars with Teff < 6150 K by calculating the tidal dissipation time-scale. We find that systems with short tidal dissipation time-scales are preferentially aligned and systems with long tidal dissipation time-scales have a broad range of obliquities.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3392-3401
Number of pages10
JournalRoyal Astronomical Society. Monthly Notices
Volume440
Early online date17 Apr 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2014

Keywords

  • techniques: photometric
  • techniques: radial velocities
  • stars: individual: WASP-13
  • stars: individual: WASP-32
  • planetary systems

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