Inflated planets and their low-mass companions

Details Inflated planets and their low-mass companions Inflated planets and their low-mass companions

2007-10-01

arxiv.org/abs/0710.0378v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in ``Extreme Solar Systems'', D. Fischer, F. Rasio, S. Thorsett and A. Wolszczan (eds), ASP Conf

Scientific paper

Various mechanisms have been proposed to explain the inflated size of HD 209458b after it became clear that it has no companions capable of producing a stellar reflex velocity greater than around 5 m/s. Had there been such a companion, the hypothesis that it forces the eccentricity of the inflated planet thereby tidally heating it may have been readily accepted. Here we summarize a paper by the author which shows that companion planets with masses as low as a fraction of an Earth mass are capable of sustaining a non-zero eccentricity in the observed planet for at least the age of the system. While such companions produce stellar reflex velocities which are fractions of a meter per second and hence are below the stellar jitter limit, they are consistent with recent theoretical work which suggests that the planet migration process often produces low-mass companions to short-period giants.

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