WARM JUPITERS FROM SECULAR PLANET–PLANET INTERACTIONS

Abstract

ABSTRACT Most warm Jupiters (gas-giant planets with 0.1 au ≲ a ≲ 1 au) have pericenter distances that are too large for significant orbital migration by tidal friction. We study the possibility that the warm Jupiters are undergoing secular eccentricity oscillations excited by an outer companion (a planet or star) in an eccentric and/or mutually inclined orbit. In this model, the warm Jupiters migrate periodically, in the high-eccentricity phase of the oscillation, but are typically observed at lower eccentricities. We show that in this model the steady-state eccentricity distribution of the warm Jupiters is approximately flat, which is consistent with the observed distribution if we restrict the sample to warm Jupiters with detected outer planetary companions. The eccentricity distribution of warm Jupiters without companions exhibits a peak at e ≲ 0.2 that must be explained by a different formation mechanism. Based on a population synthesis study, we find that high-eccentricity migration excited by an outer planetary companion (1) can account for ∼ 20 % of the warm Jupiters and most of the warm Jupiters with e ≳ 0.4 ; and (2) can produce most of the observed population of hot Jupiters, with a semimajor axis distribution that matches the observations, but fails to account adequately for ∼ 60 % of hot Jupiters with projected obliquities ≲ 20 ° . Thus ∼ 20 % of the warm Jupiters and ∼ 60 % of the hot Jupiters can be produced by high-eccentricity migration. We also provide predictions for the expected mutual inclinations and spin-orbit angles of the planetary systems with hot and warm Jupiters produced by high-eccentricity migration.