Prospects for the Characterization and Confirmation of Transiting Exoplanets via the Rossiter‐McLaughlin Effect

2006/08/31 by B. Scott Gaudi, Joshua N. Winn · 12 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Aerospace engineering #Astro and Planetary Science #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Circumstellar habitable zone #Computer science #Differential rotation #Exoplanet #Occultation #Orbit (dynamics) #Physics #Planet #Planetary system #Radial velocity #Rotation (mathematics) #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Stars #Stellar rotation #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/509910

published as Astrophys.J.655:550-563,2007 · 18 pages, 8 figures, one table. Minor changes. Accepted to ApJ, to appear in the Jan 20, 2007 issue (v655)

arxiv created 2006/10/14 · openalex publication_date 2007/01/20 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

The Rossiter-McLaughlin (RM) effect is the distortion of stellar spectral lines that occurs during eclipses or transits, due to stellar rotation. We assess the future prospects for using the RM effect to measure the alignment of planetary orbits with the spin axes of their parent stars, and to confirm exoplanetary transits. We compute the achievable accuracy for the parameters of interest, in general and for the five known cases of transiting exoplanets with bright host stars. We determine the requirements for detecting the effects of differential rotation. For transiting planets with small masses or long periods (as will be detected by forthcoming satellite missions), the velocity anomaly produced by the RM effect can be much larger than the orbital velocity of the star. For a terrestrial planet in the habitable zone of a Sunlike star found by the Kepler mission, it will be difficult to use the RM effect to confirm transits with current instruments, but it still may be easier than measuring the spectroscopic orbit.

Citations

• Dynamical Instabilities in Extrasolar Planetary Systems Containing Two Giant Planets
• Differential Rotation of the Active G5 V Star κ1Ceti: Photometry from theMOSTSatellite
• IRAS 16293−2422: Evidence for Infall onto a Counterrotating Protostellar Accretion Disk
• The dependence of differential rotation on temperature and rotation
• The Rossiter‐McLaughlin Effect and Analytic Radial Velocity Curves for Transiting Extrasolar Planetary Systems
• TrES-1: The Transiting Planet of a Bright K0 V Star
• A new method for probing the atmospheres of transiting exoplanets
• Detection of an Extrasolar Planet Atmosphere
• A Transiting Planet of a Sun‐like Star
• The Transit Light Curve Project. I. Four Consecutive Transits of the Exoplanet XO‐1b
• High-Resolution Spectroscopy of the Transiting Planet Host Star TrES-1
• Hubble Space TelescopeACS Multiband Coronagraphic Imaging of the Debris Disk around β Pictoris
• Refined Parameters of the Planet Orbiting HD 189733
• Migrating Planets
• The HARPS search for southern extra-solar planets
• Statistical properties of exoplanets

Cited by

• DISCOVERY AND ROSSITER-McLAUGHLIN EFFECT OF EXOPLANET KEPLER-8b
• The Transit Light Curve Project. III. Tres Transits of TrES‐1
• HAT-P-9b: A LOW-DENSITY PLANET TRANSITING A MODERATELY FAINT F STAR
• KELT-2Ab: A HOT JUPITER TRANSITING THE BRIGHT ( V = 8.77) PRIMARY STAR OF A BINARY SYSTEM
• Measurement of the Spin‐Orbit Angle of Exoplanet HAT‐P‐1b
• A PROGRADE, LOW-INCLINATION ORBIT FOR THE VERY HOT JUPITER WASP-3b
• The Transit Light Curve Project. IX. Evidence for a Smaller Radius of the Exoplanet XO‐3b
• ON THE TRANSIT POTENTIAL OF THE PLANET ORBITING IOTA DRACONIS
• THE ROTATION PERIOD OF THE PLANET-HOSTING STAR HD 189733
• THE HEAVY-ELEMENT MASSES OF EXTRASOLAR GIANT PLANETS, REVEALED
• KEPLER-63b: A GIANT PLANET IN A POLAR ORBIT AROUND A YOUNG SUN-LIKE STAR
• WASP-17b: AN ULTRA-LOW DENSITY PLANET IN A PROBABLE RETROGRADE ORBIT