A highly mutually-inclined, compact warm-Jupiter system KOI-984 ?

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of a highly mutually-inclined, compact warm-Jupiter system (KOI-984) with unique orbital characteristics, challenging existing theories on the formation and migration of warm Jupiters and providing new insights into their dynamical histories.

Contribution

It presents the possible discovery and characterization of a highly mutually-inclined warm-Jupiter system with unique orbital features, offering new constraints on formation and migration theories.

Findings

Discovery of a warm Jupiter KOI-984c with a 21.5-day eccentric orbit.

Identification of a low-mass perturbing planet near 1:2 resonance.

Observation of transit timing and duration variations consistent with system dynamics.

Abstract

The discovery of a population of close-orbiting giant planets ($\le$ 1 au) has raised a number of questions about their origins and dynamical histories. These issues have still not yet been fully resolved, despite over 20 years of exoplanet detections and a large number of discovered exoplanets. In particular, it is unclear whether warm Jupiters (WJs) form in situ, or whether they migrate from further outside and are even currently migrating to form hot Jupiters (HJs). Here, we report the possible discovery and characterization of the planets in a highly mutually-inclined ($I_{\rm mut}\simeq 45^\circ$), compact two-planet system (KOI-984), in which the newly discovered warm Jupiter KOI-984$c$ is on a 21.5-day, moderately eccentric ($e\simeq 0.4$) orbit, in addition to a previously known 4.3-day planet candidate KOI-984$b$. Meanwhile, the orbital configuration of a moderately inclined ($I_{\rm mut}\simeq 15^\circ$), low-mass ($m_{c}\simeq 24 M_{\oplus}$;$P_b\simeq 8.6$ days) perturbing planet near 1:2 mean motion resonace with KOI-984$b$ could also well reproduce observed transit timing variations and transit duration variations of KOI-984$b$. Such an eccentric WJ with a close-in sibling would pose a challenge to the proposed formation and migration mechanisms of WJs, if the first scenario is supported with more evidences in near future; this system with several other well-measured inclined WJ systems (e.g., Kepler-419 and Kepler-108) may provide additional clues for the origin and dynamical histories of WJs.