2018/01/18 by Lauren I. Biddle, Christopher M. Johns-Krull, Joe Llama +2
Physics and Astronomy · #Accretion (finance) #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Brightness #Hot Jupiter #Jupiter (rocket family) #Light curve #Orbital period #Planet #Rotation period #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #T Tauri star #astro-ph.EP #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aaa897
Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters
arxiv created 2018/01/18 · openalex publication_date 2018/02/01 · openalex created_date 2018/02/02 · arxiv updated 2018/02/21 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Abstract CI Tau is a young (∼2 Myr) classical T Tauri star located in the Taurus star-forming region. Radial velocity observations indicate it hosts a Jupiter-sized planet with an orbital period of approximately 9 days. In this work, we analyze time series of CI Tau’s photometric variability as seen by K2 . The light curve reveals the stellar rotation period to be ∼6.6 days. Although there is no evidence that CI Tau b transits the host star, a ∼9 day signature is also present in the light curve. We believe this is most likely caused by planet–disk interactions that perturb the accretion flow onto the star, resulting in a periodic modulation of the brightness with the ∼9 day period of the planet’s orbit.