Long-term monitoring of WASP-19 b: Signs of apsidal precession and molecular signatures

TL;DR

This study analyzes 15 years of data on WASP-19 b, revealing signs of apsidal precession and atmospheric molecular signatures, with implications for its orbital evolution and atmospheric composition.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive long-term analysis of WASP-19 b's orbital dynamics and atmospheric properties, highlighting evidence for apsidal precession over tidal decay.

Findings

Transit times show systematic deviations best explained by apsidal precession.

Transmission spectrum detects Na, K, and H2O signatures.

No significant evidence for TiO or VO in the atmosphere.

Abstract

With more than 6000 exoplanets discovered so far, about 12 percent are hot Jupiters. Their large sizes and short orbital periods make them valuable targets for studying planetary formation, atmospheres, and orbital evolution. We present a homogeneous analysis of the WASP-19 b system using a 15 year dataset to investigate both its orbital dynamics and atmospheric properties. We test whether the transit times show evidence for tidal orbital decay, apsidal precession, or periodic perturbations from an additional body, and we also construct a photometric transmission spectrum. Multi-wavelength light curves are modeled with PRISM to account for starspots, and linear, quadratic, and cubic ephemeris models are fitted to the transit timing residuals. Our dataset includes 27 new transits and reveals no statistically significant periodic signal. Although none of the tested models fully reproduces the timing scatter, the transit times show systematic deviations from a constant period and are best described by the cubic ephemeris, indicating a slow long-term trend over the full baseline. This behavior is more consistent with gradual apsidal precession than with monotonic tidal decay. A precession model yields a rate of 1.00 +/- 0.12 x 10^-4 rad per orbit and a planetary Love number k2p = 0.107 +/- 0.08. The transmission spectrum shows signatures of Na, K, and H2O, with no strong evidence for TiO or VO. These results suggest that apsidal precession may dominate the long-term orbital evolution of WASP-19 b. Continued high-precision timing and spectroscopic observations are needed to further test this scenario.