TY - JOUR
T1 - On the alignment of debris discs and their host stars' rotation axis - implications for spin-orbit misalignment in exoplanetary systems
AU - Watson, Christopher
AU - Littlefair, Stuart
AU - Diamond, C.
AU - Collier Cameron, Andrew
AU - Fitzsimmons, Alan
AU - Simpson, Elaine
AU - Moulds, Victoria
AU - Pollacco, Don
PY - 2011/5
Y1 - 2011/5
N2 - It has been widely thought that measuring the misalignment angle between the orbital plane of a transiting exoplanet and the spin of its host star was a good discriminator between different migration processes for hot-Jupiters. Specifically, well-aligned hot-Jupiter systems (as measured by the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect) were thought to have formed via migration through interaction with a viscous disc, while misaligned systems were thought to have undergone a more violent dynamical history. These conclusions were based on the assumption that the planet-forming disc was well-aligned with the host star. Recent work by a number of authors has challenged this assumption by proposing mechanisms that act to drive the star-disc interaction out of alignment during the pre-main-sequence phase. We have estimated the stellar rotation axis of a sample of stars which host spatially resolved debris discs. Comparison of our derived stellar rotation axis inclination angles with the geometrically measured debris-disc inclinations shows no evidence for a misalignment between the two.
AB - It has been widely thought that measuring the misalignment angle between the orbital plane of a transiting exoplanet and the spin of its host star was a good discriminator between different migration processes for hot-Jupiters. Specifically, well-aligned hot-Jupiter systems (as measured by the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect) were thought to have formed via migration through interaction with a viscous disc, while misaligned systems were thought to have undergone a more violent dynamical history. These conclusions were based on the assumption that the planet-forming disc was well-aligned with the host star. Recent work by a number of authors has challenged this assumption by proposing mechanisms that act to drive the star-disc interaction out of alignment during the pre-main-sequence phase. We have estimated the stellar rotation axis of a sample of stars which host spatially resolved debris discs. Comparison of our derived stellar rotation axis inclination angles with the geometrically measured debris-disc inclinations shows no evidence for a misalignment between the two.
M3 - Article
SP - L71-L75
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, Volume 437, Issue 1, p.L51-L55
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, Volume 437, Issue 1, p.L51-L55
SN - 1745-3933
ER -