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New constraints on the planetary system around the young active star AU Mic. Two transiting warm Neptunes near mean-motion resonance

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arxiv 2012.13238 v2 pith:MTBJE7SP submitted 2020-12-24 astro-ph.EP astro-ph.SR

classification astro-ph.EPastro-ph.SR
keywords planetoplusplanetarysystemplanetsstartesstransiting
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal

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abstract

AU Mic is a young, active star whose transiting planet was recently detected. We report our analysis of its TESS data, where we modeled the BY Draconis type quasi-periodic rotational modulation by starspots simultaneously to the flaring activity and planetary transits. We measured a flare occurrence rate of 6.35 flares per day for flares with amplitudes in the range of $0.06\% < f_{\rm max} < 1.5\%$ of the star flux. We employed a Bayesian MCMC analysis to model the five transits of AU Mic b, improving the constraints on the planetary parameters. The planet radius of $4.07\pm0.17$~R$_{\oplus}$ and a mean density of $1.4\pm0.4$~g~cm$^{-3}$ confirms that it is a Neptune-size moderately inflated planet. While a single feature possibly due to a second planet was previously reported in the former TESS data, we report the detection of two additional transit-like events in the new TESS observations of July 2020. This represents substantial evidence for a second planet (AU Mic c) in the system. We analyzed its three transits and obtained an orbital period of $18.859019\pm0.000016$~d and a planetary radius of $3.24\pm0.16$~R$_{\oplus}$, which defines it as a warm Neptune-size planet with an expected mass in the range of 2.2~M$_{\oplus}$~$< M_{\rm c} < $25.0~M$_{\oplus}$. The two planets in the system are in near 9:4 mean-motion resonance. We show that this configuration is dynamically stable and should produce transit-timing variations (TTV). Our non-detection of significant TTV in AU Mic b suggests an upper limit for the mass of AU Mic c of $<7$~M$_{\oplus}$, indicating that this planet is also likely to be inflated. As a young multi-planet system with at least two transiting planets, AU Mic becomes a key system for the study of atmospheres of infant planets and of planet-planet and planet-disk dynamics at the early stages of planetary evolution.

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Cited by 3 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

  1. Three new exoplanet systems from the Dispersed Matter Planet Project

    astro-ph.EP 2026-08 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    DMPP-7 hosts a confirmed 0.72 Saturn-mass planet at P=4.93 days; HD 67200 and HD 2134 show moderate evidence for 2.7-2.8 day low-mass candidates that remain unconfirmed.

  2. Unstable magnetospheric accretion on the T Tauri star TW Hya

    astro-ph.SR 2026-07 accept novelty 4.5 of 10

    TW Hya’s large-scale field is a ~0.83 kG tilted dipole that varies yearly; accretion is unstable (rmag/rcor ≈ 0.33–0.40) and no close-in planet is detected above ~0.3–1 Mjup.

  3. CHEOPS photometry from 2024 reveals a reversal in the transit-timing variations of AU Mic c

    astro-ph.EP 2026-08 conditional novelty 4.0 of 10

    2024 CHEOPS transit timings of AU Mic c show a reversal of the 2023 timing offset, indicating the large deviation was not sustained.

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