DOI

We homogeneously reanalyse 124 transit light curves for the WASP-4 b hot Jupiter. This set involved new observations secured in 2019 and nearly all observations mentioned in the literature, including high-accuracy GEMINI/GMOS transmission spectroscopy of 2011-2014 and TESS observations of 2018. The analysis confirmed a non-linear transit timing variation (TTV) trend with $P/|dot{P}|sim hbox{17-30}$ Myr (1σ range), implying only half of the initial decay rate estimation. The trend significance is at least 3.4σ in the aggressively conservative treatment. Possible radial acceleration due to unseen companions is not revealed in Doppler data covering seven years 2007-2014, and radial acceleration of -15 m s-1 yr-1 reported in a recent preprint by another team is not confirmed. If present, it is a very non-linear radial velocity variation. Assuming that the entire TTV is tidal in nature, the tidal quality factor $Q-star {prime }sim hbox{(4.5-8.5)}times 104$ does not reveal a convincing disagreement with available theory predictions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)L11-L15
Number of pages5
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Volume496
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2020

    Research areas

  • methods: data analysis, planetary systems, stars: individual: WASP-4, techniques: photometric, SYSTEM, PARAMETERS, EXOPLANETS, PLANET SEARCH, RADIAL-VELOCITY, stars: individual, WASP-4, JITTER, ANALYSIS TOOL

    Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

ID: 60573249