The eccentricity distribution of warm sub-Saturns in <i>TESS</i>

ABSTRACT We present the eccentricity distribution of warm sub-Saturns (4–8 $R_{\rm{\oplus }}$, 8–200 d periods) as derived from an analysis of transit light curves from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. We use the ‘photoeccentric’ effect to constrain the eccentricities of 76 planets, comprising 60 and 16 from single and multitransiting systems, respectively. We employ Hierarchical Bayesian Modelling to infer the eccentricity distribution of the population, testing both a Beta and Mixture Beta distribution. We identify a few highly eccentric (${e\sim 0.7-0.8}$) warm sub-Saturns with eccentricities that appear too high to be explained by disc migration or planet–planet scattering alone, suggesting high-eccentricity migration may play a role in their formation. The majority of the population have a mean eccentricity of $\bar{e} = 0.103^{+0.047}_{-0.045}$, consistent with both planet–disc and planet–planet interactions. Notably, we find that the highly eccentric sub-Saturns occur in single-transiting systems. This study presents the first evidence at the population level that the eccentricities of sub-Saturns may be sculpted by dynamical processes.

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Journal
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Published
2025-05-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf759
Citations
2
Primary Topic
Astro and Planetary Science
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
2.31
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article

The eccentricity distribution of warm sub-Saturns in TESS

Samuel N. Quinn, Raquel Forés-Toribio, Noriharu Watanabe, Jon M. Jenkins et al.
2 citations
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Astro and Planetary Science
2.31
article

The eccentricity distribution of warm sub-Saturns in TESS

Samuel N. Quinn, Raquel Forés-Toribio, Noriharu Watanabe, Jon M. Jenkins, Selçuk Yalçınkaya, F. Murgas, Akihiko Fukui, Ε. Πάλλη, Jiayin Dong, David W. Latham, H. Parviainen, Karen A. Collins, Chris Stockdale, Adam Popowicz, A. Garmash, Sara Seager, G. Conzo, Richard P. Schwarz, Robert Scott Fisher, G. Ricker, Jerome de Leon, Chelsea X. Huang, David Baker, Kai Ikuta, Tianjun Gan, George Zhou, Francis P. Wilkin, J. A. Muñoz, Don J. Radford, Norio Narita, Ö. Bastürk, D. J. Wright, E. Esparza-Borges, R. Vanderspek, Justus Randolph, Emma Nabbie, Tyler R. Fairnington, Fabian Rodriguez Frustaglia, Jiaqi Wang, Christopher R. Mann, M. Mori, Avi Shporer, Joshua N. Winn, Adam Lark, Calvin Ajizian, Katherine Linnenkohl, Owen Mitchem, Krzysztof Sz Zieliníski
article en
2 citations

Abstract

ABSTRACT We present the eccentricity distribution of warm sub-Saturns (4–8 $R_{\rm{\oplus }}$, 8–200 d periods) as derived from an analysis of transit light curves from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. We use the ‘photoeccentric’ effect to constrain the eccentricities of 76 planets, comprising 60 and 16 from single and multitransiting systems, respectively. We employ Hierarchical Bayesian Modelling to infer the eccentricity distribution of the population, testing both a Beta and Mixture Beta distribution. We identify a few highly eccentric (${e\sim 0.7-0.8}$) warm sub-Saturns with eccentricities that appear too high to be explained by disc migration or planet–planet scattering alone, suggesting high-eccentricity migration may play a role in their formation. The majority of the population have a mean eccentricity of $\bar{e} = 0.103^{+0.047}_{-0.045}$, consistent with both planet–disc and planet–planet interactions. Notably, we find that the highly eccentric sub-Saturns occur in single-transiting systems. This study presents the first evidence at the population level that the eccentricities of sub-Saturns may be sculpted by dynamical processes.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical SocietyVol. 540(1)
Silesian University of Technology (PL), Austin College (US), Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (CA), Ames Research Center (US), Planetary Science Institute (US), Oregon Research Institute (US), Ankara University (TR), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US), Universidad de La Laguna (ES), Universitat de València (ES), Union College (US), University of Oregon (US), University of Southern Queensland (AU), Hamilton College (US), Novosibirsk State University (RU), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), American Association of Variable Star Observers (US), Princeton University (US), Oakwood Academy (GB), Parc Científic de la Universitat de València (ES), Education & Research Foundation (US), Astrobiology Center (JP), Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian (US), Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (ES), Tokyo Metropolitan Komaba High School (JP), Astronomy and Space (AU), Flatiron Health (United States) (US), National Research Council Canada (CA), National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (JP), National Astronomical Observatories (CN), Flatiron Institute (US), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (US), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US), The University of Tokyo (JP), Tsinghua University (CN)
Openalex Percentile: Top 12%
Astro and Planetary Science
2.31
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