The turbulent origin of spin–orbit misalignment in planetary systems
Open accessAbstract
The turbulent environment from which stars form may lead to misalignment between the stellar spin and the remnant protoplanetary disc. By using hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic simulations, we demonstrate that a wide range of stellar obliquities may be produced as a by-product of forming a star within a turbulent environment. We present a simple semi-analytic model that reveals this connection between the turbulent motions and the orientation of a star and its disc. Our results are consistent with the observed obliquity distribution of hot Jupiters. Migration of misaligned hot Jupiters may, therefore, be due to tidal dissipation in the disc, rather than tidal dissipation of the star–planet interaction.
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Viable theories for the generation of planet-star misalignments include turbulence within the protostellar core, gravitational torques from primordial stellar companions, and magnetohydrodynamic interactions between stellar magnetospheres and inner disk edges.
“Although the exact mechanism through which extrasolar spin-orbit misalignments are excited remains an active area of research, viable theories for the generation of planet-star misalignments include turbulence within the protostellar core (Bate et al., 2010; Spalding et al., 2014; Fielding et al., 2015), gravitational torques arising from primordial stellar companions (Batygin et al., 2012; Baty”
From The planet nine hypothesis (2019) · cites this paper as Fielding et al., 2015
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Dawson, R. I., & Johnson, J. A. (2018) · Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1146/annurev-astro-081817-051853 · Cited by 622 · see citing works
Batygin, K., Adams, F. C., Brown, M. E., & Becker, J. C. (2019) · Physics Reports · doi:10.1016/j.physrep.2019.01.009 · Cited by 181 · see citing works
“Although the exact mechanism through which extrasolar spin-orbit misalignments are excited remains an active area of research, viable theories for the generation of planet-star misalignments include turbulence within the protostellar core (Bate et al., 2010; Spalding et al., 2014; Fielding et al., 2015), gravitational…”
BackgroundDynamics of Planetary Systems within Star Clusters: Aspects of the Solar System’s Early Evolution
Batygin, K., Adams, F. C., Batygin, Y. K., & Petigura, E. A. (2020) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ab665d · Cited by 43 · see citing works
- Authors
- Fielding, D. B., McKee, C. F., Socrates, A., Cunningham, A. J., & Klein, R. I.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (US)
- Venue
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2015-05-13
- Volume
- 450
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 3306-3318
- ISSN
- 0035-8711 (ISSN-L)
- 1365-2966
- OpenAlex
- W1923310029
- Cited by
- 123
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 4
- FWCI
- 12.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- arxiv.org
- Locations
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (1106400, 1211729, 1053575)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
- Keywords
- spin-orbit misalignment, stellar obliquity, protoplanetary disks, magnetohydrodynamic simulations, hot Jupiters, planet migration, tidal dissipation, stellar spin, semi-analytical model
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