On initial conditions and global existence for accelerating cosmologies from string theory

We construct a solution satisfying initial conditions for accelerating cosmologies from string/M-theory. Gowdy symmetric spacetimes with a positive potential are considered. Also, a global existence theorem for the spacetimes is shown.Comment: To appear in Annales Henri Poincar

On the existence of global solutions for T3T^{3}-Gowdy spacetimes with stringy matter

We show a global existence theorem for Einstein-matter equations of $T^{3}$-Gowdy symmetric spacetimes with stringy matter. The areal time coordinate is used. It is shown that this spacetime has a crushing singularity into the past. From these results we can show that the spacetime is foliated by compact hypersurfaces of constant mean curvature.Comment: 10 pages, to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Hot Stars with Hot Jupiters Have High Obliquities

We show that stars with transiting planets for which the stellar obliquity is large are preferentially hot (T_eff > 6250 K). This could explain why small obliquities were observed in the earliest measurements, which focused on relatively cool stars drawn from Doppler surveys, as opposed to hotter stars that emerged later from transit surveys. The observed trend could be due to differences in planet formation and migration around stars of varying mass. Alternatively, we speculate that hot-Jupiter systems begin with a wide range of obliquities, but the photospheres of cool stars realign with the orbits due to tidal dissipation in their convective zones, while hot stars cannot realign because of their thinner convective zones. This in turn would suggest that hot Jupiters originate from few-body gravitational dynamics, and that disk migration plays at most a supporting role.Comment: ApJ Letters, in press [6 pages

Dynamical Origin of Extrasolar Planet Eccentricity Distribution

We explore the possibility that the observed eccentricity distribution of extrasolar planets arose through planet-planet interactions, after the initial stage of planet formation was complete. Our results are based on ~3250 numerical integrations of ensembles of randomly constructed planetary systems, each lasting 100 Myr. We find that for a remarkably wide range of initial conditions the eccentricity distributions of dynamically active planetary systems relax towards a common final equilibrium distribution, well described by the fitting formula dn ~ e exp[-1/2 (e/0.3)^2] de. This distribution agrees well with the observed eccentricity distribution for e > 0.2, but predicts too few planets at lower eccentricities, even when we exclude planets subject to tidal circularization. These findings suggest that a period of large-scale dynamical instability has occurred in a significant fraction of newly formed planetary systems, lasting 1--2 orders of magnitude longer than the ~1 Myr interval in which gas-giant planets are assembled. This mechanism predicts no (or weak) correlations between semimajor axis, eccentricity, inclination, and mass in dynamically relaxed planetary systems. An additional observational consequence of dynamical relaxation is a significant population of planets (>10%) that are highly inclined (>25deg) with respect to the initial symmetry plane of the protoplanetary disk; this population may be detectable in transiting planets through the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect.Comment: Accepted to ApJ, conclusions updated to reflect the current observational constraint

Analytic Description of the Rossiter-McLaughlin Effect for Transiting Exoplanets: Cross-Correlation Method and Comparison with Simulated Data

We obtain analytical expressions for the velocity anomaly due to the Rossiter- McLaughlin effect, for the case when the anomalous radial velocity is obtained by cross-correlation with a stellar template spectrum. In the limit of vanishing width of the stellar absorption lines, our result reduces to the formula derived by Ohta et al. (2005), which is based on the first moment of distorted stellar lines. Our new formula contains a term dependent on the stellar linewidth, which becomes important when rotational line broadening is appreciable. We generate mock transit spectra for four existing exoplanetary systems (HD17156, TrES-2, TrES- 4, and HD209458) following the procedure of Winn et al. (2005), and find that the new formula is in better agreement with the velocity anomaly extracted from the mock data. Thus, our result provides a more reliable analytical description of the velocity anomaly due to the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, and explains the previously observed dependence of the velocity anomaly on the stellar rotation velocity.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figures, Astrophysical Journal in pres