Secular dynamics of multiplanet systems: implications for the formation of hot and warm Jupiters via high-eccentricity migration

TL;DR

This study investigates how secular interactions in multiplanet systems can produce hot Jupiters through high-eccentricity migration, highlighting the importance of tidal dissipation timescales and matching observed orbital properties.

Contribution

It demonstrates that secular evolution can generate hot Jupiters with realistic orbital periods and masses, emphasizing the role of tidal dissipation timescales in their formation.

Findings

Hot Jupiters are produced only with short viscous timescales (~0.014 yr).

Orbital period distribution peaks around 5 days, matching observations.

Approximately 10% of hot Jupiters have retrograde orbits.

Abstract

Hot Jupiters (HJs) are Jupiter-like planets that reside very closely to their host star, within $\sim 0.1\,\mathrm{AU}$. Their formation is not well understood. It is generally believed that they cannot have formed in situ, implying that some form of migration must have occurred after their initial formation. We study the production of HJs through secular evolution in multiplanet systems with three to five planets. In this variant of high-$e$ migration, the eccentricity of the orbit of the innermost planet is excited on secular time-scales, triggering orbital migration due to tidal dissipation. We use a secular dynamics code and carry out a population synthesis study. We find that HJs are only produced if the viscous time-scale is short ($\approx 0.014$ yr). In contrast, in up to $\approx 0.3$ of systems, the innermost planet is tidally disrupted. The orbital period distribution is peaked around 5 d, consistent with observations. The median HJ mass is $1\,M_\mathrm{J}$ with a maximum of $\approx 2 \, M_\mathrm{J}$, similar to observed HJs. Approximately 0.1 of the HJs have retrograde orbits with respect to the stellar spin. We do not find any warm Jupiters in our simulations, i.e. planets with semimajor axes between 0.1 and 1 AU.