Orbital alignment of circumbinary planets that form in misaligned circumbinary discs: the case of Kepler-413b

Abstract

Although most of the circumbinary planets detected by the Kepler spacecraft are on orbits that are closely aligned with the binary orbital plane, the systems Kepler-413 and Kepler-453 exhibit small misalignments of $\sim 2.5^{\circ }$. One possibility is that these planets formed in a circumbinary disc whose midplane was inclined relative to the binary orbital plane. Such a configuration is expected to lead to a warped and twisted disc, and our aim is to examine the inclination evolution of planets embedded in these discs. We employed 3D hydrodynamical simulations that examine the disc response to the presence of a modestly inclined binary with parameters that match the Kepler-413 system, as a function of disc parameters and binary inclinations. The discs all develop slowly varying warps, and generally display very small amounts of twist. Very slow solid body precession occurs because a large outer disc radius is adopted. Simulations of planets embedded in these discs resulted in the planet aligning with the binary orbit plane for disc masses close to the minimum mass solar nebular, such that nodal precession of the planet was controlled by the binary. For higher disc masses, the planet maintains near coplanarity with the local disc midplane. Our results suggest that circumbinary planets born in tilted circumbinary discs should align with the binary orbit plane as the disc ages and loses mass, even if the circumbinary disc remains misaligned from the binary orbit. This result has important implications for understanding the origins of the known circumbinary planets.

accepted in MNRAS

References in corpus (12)

• Dynamical Outcomes of Planet-Planet Scattering
• Constraints on resonant-trapping for two planets embedded in a protoplanetary disc
• On the Abundance of Circumbinary Planets
• On the formation and migration of giant planets in circumbinary discs
• Misaligned Disks in the Binary Protostar IRS 43
• Relative velocities among accreting planetesimals in binary systems: the circumbinary case
• On the migration of protoplanets embedded in circumbinary disks
• Assembly of Protoplanetary Disks and Inclinations of Circumbinary Planets
• On the evolution of multiple low mass planets embedded in a circumbinary disc
• The Role of Disc Self-Gravity in Circumbinary Planet Systems: I. Disc Structure and Evolution
• On the dynamics and collisional growth of planetesimals in misaligned binary systems
• Coevolution of Binaries and Gaseous Discs

Cited by in corpus (15)

• The BEBOP radial-velocity survey for circumbinary planets I. Eight years of CORALIE observations of 47 single-line eclipsing binaries and abundance constraints on the masses of circumbinary planets
• Multiple spiral arms in the disk around intermediate-mass binary HD 34700A
• Orbital dynamics of circumbinary planets
• Listening to the gravitational wave sound of circumbinary exoplanets
• Alignment of a circumbinary disc around an eccentric binary with application to KH 15D
• Parking planets in circumbinary discs
• Polar planets around highly eccentric binaries are the most stable
• Hydrodynamical turbulence in eccentric circumbinary discs and its impact on the in situ formation of circumbinary planets
• Binary orbital evolution driven by a circumbinary disc
• GW Ori: circumtriple rings and planets
• The binary mass ratios of circumbinary planet hosts
• A Pluto-Charon Sonata: The Dynamical Architecture of the Circumbinary Satellite System
• Polar alignment of a massive retrograde circumbinary disc around an eccentric binary
• Misalignment of terrestrial circumbinary planets as an indicator of their formation mechanism
• Three-dimensional evolution of radiative circumbinary discs: the size and shape of the inner cavity