Recent advances in sub-millimeter observations of young circumstellar nebulae have opened an unprecedented window into the structure of protoplanetary disks, which has revealed the surprising ubiquity of broken and misaligned disks. In this work, we demonstrate that such disks are capable of torquing the spin axis of their host star, representing a hitherto unexplored pathway by which stellar obliquities may be generated. The basis of this mechanism is a crossing of the stellar spin precession and inner disk regression frequencies, resulting in adiabatic excitation of the stellar obliquity. We derive analytical expressions for the characteristic frequencies of the inner disk and star as a function of the disk gap boundaries, and place an approximate limit on the disk architectures for which frequency crossing and resulting obliquity excitation are expected, thereby illustrating the efficacy of this model. Cumulatively, our results support the emerging concensus that significant spin-orbit misalignments are an expected outcome of planet formation.
The abundance of short-period planetary systems with high orbital obliquities relative to the spin of their host stars is often taken as evidence that scattering processes play important roles in the formation and evolution of these systems. More recent studies have suggested that wide binary companions can tilt protoplanetary disks, inducing a high stellar obliquity that form through smooth processes like disk migration. DS Tuc Ab, a transiting planet with an 8.138 day period in the 40 Myr Tucana-Horologium association, likely orbits in the same plane as its now-dissipated protoplanetary disk…
High-eccentricity migration is a likely formation mechanism for many observed hot Jupiters, particularly those with a large misalignment between the stellar spin axis and orbital angular momentum axis of the planet. In one version of high-eccentricity migration, an inclined stellar companion excites von Zeipel-Lidov-Kozai (ZLK) eccentricity oscillations of a cold Jupiter, and tidal dissipation causes the planet's orbit to shrink and circularize. Throughout this process, the stellar spin can evolve chaotically, resulting in highly misaligned hot Jupiters. Previous population studies of this mig…
We present a comprehensive theoretical study on the spin evolution of a planet under the combined effects of tidal dissipation and gravitational perturbation from an external companion. Such a "spin + companion" system (called Colombo's top) appears in many [exo]planetary contexts. The competition between the tidal torque (which drives spin-orbit alignment and synchronization) and the gravitational torque from the companion (which drives orbital precession of the planet) gives rise to two possible spin equilibria ("Tidal Cassini Equilibria", tCE) that are stable and attracting: the "simple" tC…
Spatially resolved observations of protoplanetary discs are revealing that their inner regions can be warped or broken from the outer disc. A few mechanisms are known to lead to such 3D structures; among them, the interaction with a stellar companion. We perform a 3D SPH simulation of a circumbinary disc misaligned by $60^\circ$ with respect to the binary orbital plane. The inner disc breaks from the outer regions, precessing as a rigid body, and leading to a complex evolution. As the inner disc precesses, the misalignment angle between the inner and outer discs varies by more than $100^\circ$…
The tilt of a planet's spin axis off its orbital axis ("obliquity") is a basic physical characteristic that plays a central role in determining the planet's global circulation and energy redistribution. Moreover, recent studies have also highlighted the importance of obliquities in sculpting not only the physical features of exoplanets but also their orbital architectures. It is therefore of key importance to identify and characterize the dominant processes of excitation of non-zero axial tilts. Here we highlight a simple mechanism that operates early on and is likely fundamental for many extr…
We present the obliquity of the warm Neptune HD 106315c measured via a series of spectroscopic transit observations. HD 106315c is a 4.4 REarth warm Neptune orbiting a moderately rotating late F-star with a period of 21.05 days. HD 106315 also hosts a 2.5 REarth super-Earth on a 9.55 day orbit. Our Doppler tomographic analyses of four transits observed by the Magellan/MIKE, HARPS, and TRES facilities find HD 106315c to be in a low stellar obliquity orbit, consistent with being well aligned with the spin axis of the host star at lambda = -10 +3.6/-3.8 deg. We suggest, via dynamical N-body simul…
Large planetary spin-orbit misalignments (obliquities) may strongly influence atmospheric circulation and tidal heating in the planet. A promising avenue to generate obliquities is via spin-orbit resonances, where the spin and orbital precession frequencies of the planet cross each other as the system evolves in time. One such mechanism involves a dissipating (mass-losing) protoplanetary disk that drives orbital precession of an interior planet. We study this scenario analytically in this paper, and obtain the mapping between the general initial spin orientation and the final obliquity. We sho…
We explore whether protoplanetary disks with self-shadowing from puffed up inner rims exhibit observable features in scattered light images. We use both self-consistent hydrostatic equilibrium calculations and parameterized models to produce the vertically puffed up inner rims. We find that, in general, the transition between the shadowed and flared regions occurs in a smooth manner over a broad radius range, and no sudden jump exists at the outer edge of the shadow in either the disk temperature or density structures. As a result, a puffed up rim cannot create sharp ring/arc/spiral-arm-like f…
It has been shown that hot Jupiters systems with massive, hot stellar primaries exhibit a wide range of stellar obliquities. On the other hand, hot Jupiter systems with low-mass, cool primaries often have stellar obliquities close to zero. Efficient tidal interactions between hot Jupiters and the convective envelopes present in lower-mass main sequence stars have been a popular explanation for these observations. If this explanation is accurate, then aligned systems should be older than misaligned systems. Likewise, the convective envelope mass of a hot Jupiter's host star should be an effecti…
The rotation of a star and the revolutions of its planets are not necessarily aligned. This article reviews the measurement techniques, key findings, and theoretical interpretations related to the obliquities (spin-orbit angles) of planet-hosting stars. The best measurements are for stars with short-period giant planets, which have been found on prograde, polar, and retrograde orbits. It seems likely that dynamical processes such as planet-planet scattering and secular perturbations are responsible for tilting the orbits of close-in giant planets, just as those processes are implicated in exci…
The distribution of spin-orbit angles for systems with wide-separation, tidally detached exoplanets offers a unique constraint on the prevalence of dynamically violent planetary evolution histories. Tidally detached planets provide a relatively unbiased view of the primordial stellar obliquity distribution, since they cannot tidally realign within the system lifetime. We present the third result from our Stellar Obliquities in Long-period Exoplanet Systems (SOLES) survey: a measurement of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect across two transits of the tidally detached warm Jupiter TOI-1478 b with th…
The collision dynamics of dusty bodies are crucial for planetesimal formation. Especially decimeter agglomerates are important in the different formation models. Therefore, in continuation of our experiments on mutual decimeter collisions, we investigate collisions of centimeter onto decimeter dust agglomerates in a small drop tower under vacuum conditions (p<5*$10^{-1}$ mbar) at a mean collision velocity of 6.68 +- 0.67m/s. We use quartz dust with irregularly shaped micrometer grains. Centimeter projectiles with different diameters, masses and heights are used, their typical volume filling fa…
The 35-Myr old infant planet TOI-837 b has a mildly misaligned orbit
Centro di Ateneo di Studi e Attività Spaziali “G. Colombo” – Università degli Studi di Padova（帕多瓦大学太空研究与活动中心“G. Colombo”）；INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova（意大利国家天体物理研究所帕多瓦天文台）；Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “Galileo Galilei”, Università di Padova（帕多瓦大学伽利略·伽利雷物理与天文学系）；Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Padova（帕多瓦大学物理与天文学系）；INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania（意大利国家天体物理研究所卡塔尼亚天文台）；INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera（意大利国家天体物理研究所布雷拉天文台）；INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo（意大利国家天体物理研究所巴勒莫天文台）；INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino（意大利国家天体物理研究所都灵天文台）
Mass transfer from an evolved donor star to its binary companion is a standard feature of stellar evolution in binaries. In wide binaries, the companion star captures some of the mass ejected in a wind by the primary star. The captured material forms an accretion disk. Here, we study the evolution of wind-accretion disks, using a numerical approach which allows us to follow the long term evolution. For a broad range of initial conditions, we derive the radial density and temperature profiles of the disk. In most cases, wind-accretion leads to long-lived stable disks over the lifetime of the AG…
Magnetically Driven Obliquity in Circumplanetary Disks and Twisted Bipolar-jet Formation
Charles University（查理大学）；Niels Bohr International Academy, Niels Bohr Institute（尼尔斯·玻尔国际学院，尼尔斯·玻尔研究所）；Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México（墨西哥国立自治大学天文学研究所）；Université Côte d’Azur, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Laboratoire Lagrange（蔚蓝海岸大学，蔚蓝海岸天文台，法国国家科学研究中心，拉格朗日实验室）；Collège de France, CNRS, PSL Univ., Sorbonne Univ.（法兰西公学院，法国国家科学研究中心，巴黎文理研究大学，索邦大学）
The morphological evolution of dusty disks around young (few Myr-old) stars is pivotal to better understand planet formation. Since both dust grains and the global disk geometry evolve on short timescale, high-resolution imaging of a sample of objects may provide important hints towards such an evolution. We enlarge the sample of protoplanetary disks imaged in polarized light with high-resolution by observing the Herbig Ae/Be stars HD163296, HD141569A, and HD150193A. We integrate our data with previous datasets to paint a larger picture of their morphology. We report a weak detection of the di…
We report the sky-projected orbital obliquity (spin-orbit angle) of WASP-84b, a 0.70-$M_{\rm Jup}$ planet in a 8.52-day orbit around a G9V/K0V star, to be $λ= 0.3 \pm 1.7^\circ$. We obtain a true obliquity of $ψ= 14.8 \pm 8.0^\circ$ from a measurement of the inclination of the stellar spin axis with respect to the sky plane. Due to the young age and the weak tidal forcing of the system, we suggest that the orbit of WASP-84b is unlikely to have both realigned and circularised from the misaligned and/or eccentric orbit likely to have arisen from high-eccentricity migration. Therefore we conclude…
The turbulent environment from which stars form may lead to misalignment between the stellar spin and the remnant protoplanetary disk. By using hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic simulations, we demonstrate that a wide range of stellar obliquities may be produced as a by-product of forming a star within a turbulent environment. We present a simple semi-analytic model that reveals this connection between the turbulent motions and the orientation of a star and its disk. Our results are consistent with the observed obliquity distribution of hot Jupiters. Migration of misaligned hot Jupiters may…
Identifying close-in Jupiters that arrived via disk migration: Evidence of primordial alignment, preference of nearby companions and hint of runaway migration
An overabundance of single-transiting Kepler planets suggests the existence of a sub-population of intrinsically multi-planet systems possessing large mutual inclinations. However, the origin of these mutual inclinations remains unknown. Recent work has demonstrated that mutual inclinations can be excited soon after protoplanetary disk-dispersal due to the oblateness of the rapidly-rotating host star, provided the star is tilted. Alternatively, distant giant planets, which are common in systems of close-in Kepler planets, could drive up mutual inclinations. The relative importance of each of t…
Stars hosting hot Jupiters are often observed to have high obliquities, whereas stars with multiple co-planar planets have been seen to have low obliquities. This has been interpreted as evidence that hot-Jupiter formation is linked to dynamical disruption, as opposed to planet migration through a protoplanetary disk. We used asteroseismology to measure a large obliquity for Kepler-56, a red giant star hosting two transiting co-planar planets. These observations show that spin-orbit misalignments are not confined to hot-Jupiter systems. Misalignments in a broader class of systems had been pred…
We present H-band polarized scattered light imagery and JHK high-contrast spectroscopy of the protoplanetary disk around HD 163296 observed with the HiCIAO and SCExAO/CHARIS instruments at Subaru Observatory. The polarimetric imagery resolve a broken ring structure surrounding HD 163296 that peaks at a distance along the major axis of 0.65 (66 AU) and extends out to 0.98 (100 AU) along the major axis. Our 2011 H-band data exhibit clear axisymmetry, with the NW- and SE- side of the disk exhibiting similar intensities. Our data are clearly different than 2016 epoch H-band observations from VLT/S…
Dippers are a common class of young variable star exhibiting day-long dimmings with depths of up to several tens of percent. A standard explanation is that dippers host nearly edge-on (70 deg) protoplanetary discs that allow close-in (< 1 au) dust lifted slightly out of the midplane to partially occult the star. The identification of a face-on dipper disc and growing evidence of inner disc misalignments brings this scenario into question. Thus we uniformly (re)derive the inclinations of 24 dipper discs resolved with (sub-)mm interferometry from ALMA. We find that dipper disc inclinations are c…
Planetesimal formation is one of the most important unsolved problems in planet formation theory. In particular, rocky planetesimal formation is difficult because silicate dust grains are easily broken when they collide. Recently, it has been proposed that they can grow as porous aggregates when their monomer radius is smaller than $\sim$ 10 nm, which can also avoid the radial drift toward the central star. However, the stability of a layer composed of such porous silicate dust aggregates has not been investigated. Therefore, we investigate the gravitational instability of this dust layer. To …
We carry out three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations to study planet-disc interactions for inclined high mass planets, focusing on the disc's secular evolution induced by the planet. We find that, when the planet is massive enough and the induced gap is deep enough, the disc inside the planet's orbit breaks from the outer disc. The inner and outer discs precess around the system's total angular momentum vector independently at different precession rates, which causes significant disc misalignment. We derive the analytical formulae, which are also verified numerically, for: 1) the relation…
We revisit the tidal stability of extrasolar systems harboring a transiting planet and demonstrate that, independently of any tidal model, none but one (HAT-P-2b) of these planets has a tidal equilibrium state, which implies ultimately a collision of these objects with their host star. Consequently, conventional circularization and synchronization timescales cannot be defined because the corresponding states do not represent the endpoint of the tidal evolution. Using numerical simulations of the coupled tidal equations for the spin and orbital parameters of each transiting planetary system, we…
We review the role of stellar flybys and encounters in shaping planet-forming discs around young stars, based on the published literature on this topic in the last 30 years. Since most stars $\leq~2$ Myr old harbour protoplanetary discs, tidal perturbations affect planet formation. First, we examine the probability of experiencing flybys or encounters: More than 50\% of stars with planet-forming discs in a typical star forming environment should experience a close stellar encounter or flyby within 1000 au. Second, we detail the dynamical effects of flybys on planet-forming discs. Prograde, par…
We study how the interaction between the streaming instability and intrinsic gas-phase turbulence affects planetesimal formation via gravitational collapse in protoplanetary disks. Turbulence impedes the formation of particle clumps by acting as an effective turbulent diffusivity, but it can also promote planetesimal formation by concentrating solids, for example in zonal flows. We quantify the effect of turbulent diffusivity using numerical simulations of the streaming instability in small local domains, forced with velocity perturbations that establish approximately Kolmogorov-like turbulenc…
Upside down: GJ3090 b the first retrograde exoplanet around an M dwarf detected with NIRPS
Université de Genève（日内瓦大学）；Queen Mary University of London（伦敦玛丽女王大学）；Université de Montréal（蒙特利尔大学）；Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte（北里奥格兰德联邦大学）；Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC)（加那利天体物理研究所）
All four circumbinary (CB) protoplanetary disks orbiting short-period ($P < 20$ day) double-lined spectroscopic binaries (SB2s)---a group that includes UZ Tau E, for which we present new ALMA data---exhibit sky-plane inclinations $i_{\rm disk}$ which match, to within a few degrees, the sky-plane inclinations $i_\star$ of their stellar hosts. Although for these systems the true mutual inclinations $θ$ between disk and binary cannot be directly measured because relative nodal angles are unknown, the near-coincidence of $i_{\rm disk}$ and $i_\star$ suggests that $θ$ is small for these most compac…
Transition disks correspond to a short stage between the young protoplanetary phase and older debris phase. Along this evolutionary sequence, the gas component disappears leaving room for a dust-dominated environment where already-formed planets signpost their gravitational perturbations. We endeavor to study the very inner region of the well-known and complex debris, but still gas-rich disk, around HD 141569A using the exquisite high-contrast capability of SPHERE at the VLT. Recent near-infrared (IR) images suggest a relatively depleted cavity within ~200 au, while former mid-IR data indicate…
