2019A&A...629L...7C -
Astronomy and Astrophysics, volume 629, L7-7 (2019/9-1)
Planet-planet scattering as the source of the highest eccentricity exoplanets.
CARRERA D., RAYMOND S.N. and DAVIES M.B.
Abstract (from CDS):
Most giant exoplanets discovered by radial velocity surveys have much higher eccentricities than those in the solar system. The planet-planet scattering mechanism has been shown to match the broad eccentricity distribution, but the highest-eccentricity planets are often attributed to Kozai-Lidov oscillations induced by a stellar companion. Here we investigate whether the highly eccentric exoplanet population can be produced entirely by scattering. We ran 500 N-body simulations of closely packed giant-planet systems that became unstable under their own mutual perturbations. We find that the surviving bound planets can have eccentricities up to e>0.99, with a maximum of 0.999017 in our simulations. This suggests that there is no maximum eccentricity that can be produced by planet-planet scattering. Importantly, we find that extreme eccentricities are not extremely rare; the eccentricity distribution for all giant exoplanets with e>0.3 is consistent with all planets concerned being generated by scattering. Our results show that the discovery of planets with extremely high eccentricities does not necessarily signal the action of the Kozai-Lidov mechanism.
Abstract Copyright:
© ESO 2019
Journal keyword(s):
planets and satellites: dynamical evolution and stability - planets and satellites: gaseous planets
Simbad objects:
3
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