Why is there a Dearth of Close-In Planets around Fast-Rotating stars?

Seth Teitler, Arieh Koenigl

(Submitted on 24 Mar 2014)

We propose that the reported dearth of $Kepler$ Objects of Interest (KOIs) with orbital periods $P_{\rm orb} \lesssim 2-3\;$days around stars with rotation periods $P_{\rm rot} \lesssim 5-10\;$days can be attributed to tidal ingestion of close-in planets by their host stars. We show that the planet distribution in this region of the $\log{P_{\rm orb}}-\log{P_{\rm rot}}$ plane is qualitatively reproduced with a model that incorporates tidal interaction and magnetic braking as well as the dependence on the stellar core–envelope coupling timescale. We demonstrate the consistency of this scenario with the inferred break in the $P_{\rm orb}$ distribution of close-in KOIs and point out a potentially testable prediction of this interpretation.

Comments:8 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

Subjects:Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)

Cite as:arXiv:1403.5860 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:1403.5860v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)

Submission history

From: Arieh Konigl [view email] 

[v1] Mon, 24 Mar 2014 05:51:38 GMT (204kb)