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Secular Chaos and the Production of Hot Jupiters

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arxiv 1012.3475 v1 pith:62NTZW4I submitted 2010-12-15 astro-ph.EP astro-ph.SR

Secular Chaos and the Production of Hot Jupiters

classification astro-ph.EP astro-ph.SR
keywords secularchaosjupitersplanetsmigrationgiantplanetstellar
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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In a planetary system with two or more well-spaced, eccentric, inclined planets, secular interactions may lead to chaos. The innermost planet may gradually become very eccentric and/or inclined, as a result of the secular degrees of freedom drifting towards equipartition of angular momentum deficit. Secular chaos is known to be responsible for the eventual destabilization of Mercury in our own Solar System. Here we focus on systems with three giant planets. We characterize the secular chaos and demonstrate the criterion for it to occur, but leave a detailed understanding of secular chaos to a companion paper (Lithwick & Wu, 2010). After an extended period of eccentricity diffusion, the inner planet's pericentre can approach the star to within a few stellar radii. Strong tidal interactions and ensuing tidal dissipation extracts orbital energy from the planet and pulls it inward, creating a hot Jupiter. In contrast to other proposed channels for the production of hot Jupiters, such a scenario (which we term "secular migration") explains a range of observations: the pile-up of hot Jupiters at 3-day orbital periods, the fact that hot Jupiters are in general less massive than other RV planets, that they may have misaligned inclinations with respect to stellar spin, and that they have few easily detectable companions (but may have giant companions in distant orbits). Secular migration can also explain close-in planets as low in mass as Neptune; and an aborted secular migration can explain the "warm Jupiters" at intermediate distances. In addition, the frequency of hot Jupiters formed via secular migration increases with stellar age. We further suggest that secular chaos may be responsible for the observed eccentricities of giant planets at larger distances, and that these planets could exhibit significant spin-orbit misalignment.

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Cited by 9 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. Where Do Hot Jupiters Come From? Revisiting Tidal Disruption and Ejection in High-Eccentricity Migration

    astro-ph.EP 2026-05 conditional novelty 7.0

    Planets with realistic dense cores survive close star encounters without total disruption, allowing more to circularize into hot Jupiters or be ejected after mass loss.

  2. Companion Architectures of Sub-Saturns: Distinct Migration Pathways Across the Neptunian Landscape

    astro-ph.EP 2026-07 accept novelty 6.0

    Desert/ridge sub-Saturns show ~10% nearby-companion rates like hot Jupiters; savanna ones show ~70% like warm Jupiters, supporting HEM versus quiescent migration.

  3. On the Eccentricity Distribution and Tidal Evolution of Transiting Brown Dwarfs

    astro-ph.EP 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0

    Short-period (P<16 d) transiting brown dwarfs are low-eccentricity while longer-period ones are more excited; assuming a shared primordial Beta distribution, tidal evolution constrains Q_BD ≈ 10^{7.1–8.1}.

  4. The GAPS Programme at TNG LXXIV. A reanalysis of the planetary systems TOI-1272 and TOI-1694 with HARPS-N and retraction of the planetary interpretation of TOI-1272 c

    astro-ph.EP 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Reanalysis retracts TOI-1272c as a planet due to stellar activity, finds slightly eccentric orbits for TOI-1694b and c, and provides updated parameters with smaller uncertainties for both systems.

  5. Observing a 542-day transiting giant with large TTVs: The 2025 transit of HIP 41378 f and new constraints on the outer system

    astro-ph.EP 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    New 2025 transit timing of HIP 41378 f shows a 7-hour early arrival consistent with TTVs; N-body modeling with TRADES refines ephemerides for planets d, e, and f.

  6. Observing a 542-day transiting giant with large TTVs: The 2025 transit of HIP 41378 f and new constraints on the outer system

    astro-ph.EP 2026-06 accept novelty 5.0

    New 2025 transit timing for HIP 41378 f confirms large TTVs and is combined with prior data on planets d and e in an N-body model to update ephemerides and predict future transits.

  7. Stellar Obliquities of Young Systems, Atmospheres Undergoing Contraction and Escape (SOYSAUCE) II: a 135 Myr planet on an aligned orbit with transit timing variations

    astro-ph.EP 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    Validation of a 135 Myr, 3.6 R_E transiting planet with aligned obliquity and TTV evidence for a near-resonant companion.

  8. The GAPS Programme at TNG LXXIV. A reanalysis of the planetary systems TOI-1272 and TOI-1694 with HARPS-N and retraction of the planetary interpretation of TOI-1272 c

    astro-ph.EP 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 3.0

    Reanalysis of TOI-1272 and TOI-1694 retracts TOI-1272 c as planetary, attributes the signal to stellar activity via Gaussian process modeling, and refines orbital parameters for the systems.

  9. TOI-2147 b and TOI-6019 b: Two eccentric warm Jupiters detected and characterized with TESS and MaHPS

    astro-ph.EP 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 3.0

    Detection and characterization of two eccentric warm Jupiters TOI-2147 b (P=26.2 d, e=0.29, M=116 M⊕) and TOI-6019 b (P=14.5 d, e=0.48, M=149 M⊕) with TESS and MaHPS data, showing mildly inflated radii consistent with...