Browsing by Author "Alvarado-Montes, Jaime A."

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Gaia-4b and 5b: Radial Velocity Confirmation of Gaia Astrometric Orbital Solutions Reveal a Massive Planet and a Brown Dwarf Orbiting Low-mass Stars
    (IOP Publishing Ltd, 2025) Stefansson, Gudmundur; Mahadevan, Suvrath; Winn, Joshua N.; Marcussen, Marcus L.; Kanodia, Shubham; Albrecht, Simon; Fitzmaurice, Evan; Mikulskyte, One; Canas, Caleb I.; Espinoza Retamal, Juan Ignacio; Zwart, Yiri; Krolikowski, Daniel M.; Hotnisky, Andrew; Robertson, Paul; Alvarado-Montes, Jaime A.; Bender, Chad F.; Blake, Cullen H.; Callingham, J. R.; Cochran, William D.; Delamer, Megan; Diddams, Scott A.; Dong, Jiayin; Fernandes, Rachel B.; Giovinazzi, Mark R.; Halverson, Samuel; Libby-Roberts, Jessica; Logsdon, Sarah E.; Mcelwain, Michael W.; Ninan, Joe P.; Rajagopal, Jayadev; Reji, Varghese; Roy, Arpita; Schwab, Christian; Wright, Jason T.
    Gaia astrometry of nearby stars is precise enough to detect the tiny displacements induced by substellar companions, but radial velocity (RV) data are needed for definitive confirmation. Here we present RV follow-up observations of 28 M and K stars with candidate astrometric substellar companions, which led to the confirmation of two systems, Gaia-4b and Gaia-5b, identification of five systems that are single lined but require additional data to confirm as substellar companions, and the refutation of 21 systems as stellar binaries. Gaia-4b is a massive planet (M = 11.8 +/- 0.7 MJ) in a P = 571.3 +/- 1.4 day orbit with a projected semimajor axis a0 = 0.312 +/- 0.040 mas orbiting a 0.644 +/- 0.02M circle dot star. Gaia-5b is a brown dwarf (M = 20.9 +/- 0.5MJ) in a P = 358.62 +/- 0.20 days eccentric e = 0.6423 +/- 0.0026 orbit with a projected angular semimajor axis of a0 = 0.947 +/- 0.038 mas around a 0.34 +/- 0.03M circle dot star. Gaia-4b is one of the first exoplanets discovered via the astrometric technique, and is one of the most massive planets known to orbit a low-mass star.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Ploonets: formation, evolution, and detectability of tidally detached exomoons
    (2019) Sucerquia, Mario; Alvarado-Montes, Jaime A.; Zuluaga, Jorge, I; Cuello, Nicolas; Giuppone, Cristian
    Close-in giant planets represent the most significant evidence of planetary migration. If large exomoons form around migrating giant planets which are more stable (e.g. those in the Solar system), what happens to these moons after migration is still under intense research. This paper explores the scenario where large regular exomoons escape after tidal interchange of angular momentum with its parent planet, becoming small planets by themselves. We name this hypothetical type of object a ploonet. By performing semi-analytical simulations of tidal interactions between a large moon with a close-in giant, and integrating numerically their orbits for several Myr, we found that in similar to 50 per cent of the cases a young ploonet may survive ejection from the planetary system, or collision with its parent planet and host star, being in principle detectable. Volatile-rich ploonets are dramatically affected by stellar radiation during both planetocentric and siderocentric orbital evolution, and their radius and mass change significantly due to the sublimation of most of their material during time-scales of hundreds of Myr. We estimate the photometric signatures that ploonets may produce if they transit the star during the phase of evaporation, and compare them with noisy light curves of known objects (Kronian stars and non-periodical dips in dusty light curves). Additionally, the typical transit timing variations (TTV) induced by the interaction of a ploonet with its planet are computed. We find that present and future photometric surveys' capabilities can detect these effects and distinguish them from those produced by other nearby planetary encounters.