The Aligned Orbit of a Hot Jupiter around the M Dwarf TOI-4201

TL;DR

This paper reports the first measurement of the obliquity of an M dwarf hosting a hot Jupiter, revealing a well-aligned orbit that supports theories of quiet formation or tidal realignment.

Contribution

It presents the first detection of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect for an M dwarf with a hot Jupiter, expanding obliquity measurements to this rare class of systems.

Findings

TOI-4201b is well-aligned with its host star.

The system's obliquity suggests a quiet formation or tidal realignment.

This is the first obliquity measurement for an M dwarf hot Jupiter.

Abstract

Measuring the obliquities of stars hosting giant planets may shed light on the dynamical history of planetary systems. Significant efforts have been made to measure the obliquities of FGK stars with hot Jupiters, mainly based on observations of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect. In contrast, M dwarfs with hot Jupiters have hardly been explored, because such systems are rare and often not favorable for such precise observations. Here, we report the first detection of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect for an M dwarf with a hot Jupiter, TOI-4201, using the Gemini-North/MAROON-X spectrograph. We find TOI-4201 to be well-aligned with its giant planet, with a sky-projected obliquity of $\lambda=-3.0_{-3.2}^{+3.7}\ ^{\circ}$ and a true obliquity of $\psi=21.3_{-12.8}^{+12.5}\ ^{\circ}$ with an upper limit of $40^{\circ}$ at a 95% confidence level. The result agrees with dynamically quiet formation or tidal obliquity damping that realigned the system. As the first hot Jupiter around an M dwarf with its obliquity measured, TOI-4201b joins the group of aligned giant planets around cool stars ($T_{\rm eff}<6250\ K$), as well as the small but growing sample of planets with relatively high planet-to-star mass ratio ($M_p/M_\ast\gtrsim 3\times 10^{-3}$) that also appear to be mostly aligned.