Post-Keplerian obliquity variations and the habitability of rocky planets orbiting fast spinning, oblate late M dwarfs

TL;DR

This paper investigates how post-Keplerian orbit precessions caused by stellar oblateness and relativistic effects can lead to significant long-term variations in planetary obliquity, affecting habitability of planets orbiting fast-spinning late M dwarfs.

Contribution

It provides analytical and numerical analysis of obliquity variations due to post-Keplerian precessions for planets around fast-spinning M dwarfs, highlighting the importance of stellar oblateness.

Findings

Obliquity variations up to tens of degrees over 20-200 kyr for rapidly rotating M dwarfs.

Obliquity variations are minimal (less than 1.5°) for planets around slower rotators like Teegarden's Star.

Stellar oblateness significantly influences long-term planetary habitability assessments.

Abstract

A couple of dozen Earth-like planets orbiting M dwarfs have been discovered so far. Some of them have attracted interest because of their potential long-term habitability; such a possibility is currently vigorously debated in the literature. I show that post-Keplerian (pK) orbit precessions may impact the habitability of a fictitious telluric planet orbiting an oblate late-type M dwarf of spectral class M9V with $M_\star=0.08\,M_\odot$ at $a=0.02\,\mathrm{au}$, corresponding to an orbital period $P_\mathrm{b}\simeq 4\,\mathrm{d}$, inducing long-term variations of the planetary obliquity $\varepsilon$ which, under certain circumstances, may not be deemed as negligible from the point of view of life's sustainability. I resume the analytical orbit-averaged equations of the pK precessions, both classical and general relativistic, of the unit vectors $\boldsymbol{\hat{S}},\,\boldsymbol{\hat{h}}$ of both the planet's spin and orbital angular momenta $\boldsymbol S,\,\boldsymbol{L}$ entering $\varepsilon$, and numerically integrate them by producing time series of the pK changes $\Delta\varepsilon(t)$ of the obliquity. For rapidly rotating M dwarfs with rotational periods of the order of $P_\star \simeq 0.1-1\,\mathrm{d}$, the planet's obliquity $\varepsilon$ can undergo classical pK large variations $\Delta\varepsilon(t)$ up to tens of degrees over timescales $\Delta t \simeq 20-200\,\mathrm{kyr}$, depending on the mutual orientations of the star's spin ${\boldsymbol J}_\star$, of $\boldsymbol S$, and of $\boldsymbol L$. Instead, $\Delta\varepsilon(t)$ are $\lesssim 1-1.5^\circ$ for the planet b of the Teegarden's Star. In certain circumstances, the M dwarf's oblateness $J_2^\star$ should be considered as one of the key dynamical features to be taken into account in compiling budgets of the long-term habitability of rocky planets around fast spinning late M dwarfs. (Abridged)