Alexander Mustill
Researcher
Hot Jupiters and Cool Stars
Author
Summary, in English
Close-in planets are in jeopardy, as their host stars evolve off the main sequence (MS) to the subgiant and red giant phases. In this paper, we explore the influences of the stellar mass (in the range 1.5-2M similar to), mass-loss prescription, planet mass (from Neptune up to 10 Jupiter masses), and eccentricity on the orbital evolution of planets as their parent stars evolve to become subgiants and red giants. We find that planet engulfment along the red giant branch is not very sensitive to the stellar mass or mass-loss rates adopted in the calculations, but quite sensitive to the planetary mass. The range of initial separations for planet engulfment increases with decreasing mass-loss rates or stellar masses and increasing planetary masses. Regarding the planet's orbital eccentricity, we find that as the star evolves into the red giant phase, stellar tides start to dominate over planetary tides. As a consequence, a transient population of moderately eccentric close-in Jovian planets is created that otherwise would have been expected to be absent from MS stars. We find that very eccentric and distant planets do not experience much eccentricity decay, and that planet engulfment is primarily determined by the pericenter distance and the maximum stellar radius.
Department/s
- Lund Observatory - Has been reorganised
Publishing year
2014
Language
English
Publication/Series
Astrophysical Journal
Volume
794
Issue
1
Links
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
American Astronomical Society
Topic
- Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Keywords
- planetary systems
- stars: evolution
- stars: fundamental parameters
- stars: general
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0004-637X