Is There a Synchronizing Influence of Planets on Solar and Stellar Cyclic Activity?

TL;DR

This study investigates whether planets influence stellar activity cycles and finds no evidence of synchronization between planetary orbital periods and stellar cycles, based on long-term data analysis.

Contribution

The paper extends previous research by analyzing additional stars and planetary systems, providing new evidence that planetary gravitational effects do not determine stellar activity cycles.

Findings

No synchronization between planetary orbital periods and stellar cycles.

Exoplanets do not influence the formation of stellar activity cycles.

Solar system barycenter shifts are not correlated with solar activity.

Abstract

This work continues our research of connection between the long-term activity of stars and their planets. We analyze new data on the previously considered two dozen solar-type stars with identified cycles, adding the results of studying the long-term variability of two more solar-type G stars and 15 cooler M dwarfs with planets. If the cyclic activity is determined by a strong tidal influence of the planet, then the cycle duration of the star should be synchronized with the period of orbital revolution of the planet. We calculate the gravitational effect of planets on their parent stars. The results obtained confirm the earlier conclusion that exoplanets do not influence the formation of the stellar cycle. We examine the change in the position of the barycenter of the solar system relative to the center of the Sun over 420 years. A comparison of these data with the most reliable 120-year SSN (sunspot number) series as the index of solar activity has shown that they are not synchronized.