Bibliographic Details
| Title: |
Transit timing variations in the WASP-4 planetary system |
| Authors: |
Southworth, John, Dominik, M., Jorgensen, U. G., Andersen, M. I., Bozza, V., Burgdorf, M. J., D'Ago, G., Dib, S., Jaimes, R. Figuera, Fujii, Y. I., Gill, S., Haikala, L. K., Hinse, T. C., Hundertmark, M., Khalouei, E., Korhonen, H., Longa-Pena, P., Mancini, L., Peixinho, N., Rabus, M., Rahvar, S., Sajadian, S., Skottfelt, J., Snodgrass, C., Spyratos, P., Tregloan-Reed, J., Unda-Sanzana, E., von Essen, C. |
| Publication Year: |
2019 |
| Collection: |
Astrophysics |
| Subject Terms: |
Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics |
| More Details: |
Transits in the planetary system WASP-4 were recently found to occur 80s earlier than expected in observations from the TESS satellite. We present 22 new times of mid-transit that confirm the existence of transit timing variations, and are well fitted by a quadratic ephemeris with period decay dP/dt = -9.2 +/- 1.1 ms/yr. We rule out instrumental issues, stellar activity and the Applegate mechanism as possible causes. The light-time effect is also not favoured due to the non-detection of changes in the systemic velocity. Orbital decay and apsidal precession are plausible but unproven. WASP-4b is only the third hot Jupiter known to show transit timing variations to high confidence. We discuss a variety of observations of this and other planetary systems that would be useful in improving our understanding of WASP-4 in particular and orbital decay in general.
Comment: Accepted for publication to MNRAS Main Journal. 7 pages, 2 colour figures, 1 table. Version 2 is the revised version after the refereeing process, which includes changes to some of the conclusions of the paper |
| Document Type: |
Working Paper |
| DOI: |
10.1093/mnras/stz2602 |
| Access URL: |
http://arxiv.org/abs/1907.08269 |
| Accession Number: |
edsarx.1907.08269 |
| Database: |
arXiv |
