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Discrepancies between isochrone fitting and gyrochronology for exoplanet host stars?

2014/06/16 by D. J. A. Brown · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Exoplanet #Geometry #Physics #Planet #Planetary system #Rotation (mathematics) #Sky #Stars #Stellar rotation #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.EP #astro-ph.SR

paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/stu950

published as MNRAS 2014, 442 (1): 1844-1862 · 21 pages, 16 figures, 3 tables. This article has been accepted for publication in MNRAS ©: 2014 Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the author

openalex publication_date 2014/06/16 · arxiv created 2014/06/17 · arxiv updated 2014/06/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Using a sample of 68 planet-hosting stars, I carry out a comparison of isochrone fitting and gyrochronology to investigate whether tidal interactions between the stars and their planets are leading to underestimated ages using the latter method. I find a slight tendency for isochrones to produce older age estimates but find no correlation with tidal time-scale, although for some individual systems the effect of tides might be leading to more rapid rotation than expected from the stars' isochronal age, and therefore an underestimated gyrochronology age. By comparing to planetary systems in stellar clusters, I also find that in some cases isochrone fitting can overestimate the age of the star. The evidence for any bias on a sample-wide level is inconclusive. I also consider the subset of my sample for which the sky-projected alignment angle between the stellar rotation axis and the planet's orbital axis has been measured, finding similar patterns to those identified in the full sample. However, small sample sizes for both the misaligned and aligned systems prevent strong conclusions from being drawn.

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