Paper: astro-ph/0510198
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 10:09:12 GMT (21kb)

Title: On the relation between Hot-Jupiters and the Roche Limit

Authors: Eric B. Ford & Frederic A. Rasio

Comments: 8 pages, 3 figures, proceedings for talk at "Tenth anniversary of 51
Peg-b : Status of and prospects for hot Jupiter studies"
\\
Many of the known extrasolar planets are ``hot Jupiters,'' giant planets with
orbital periods of just a few days. We use the observed distribution of hot
Jupiters to constrain the location of the ``inner edge'' and planet migration
theory. If we assume the location of the inner edge is proportional to the
Roche limit, then we find that this edge is located near twice the Roche limit,
as expected if the planets were circularized from a highly eccentric orbit. If
confirmed, this result would place significant limits on migration via slow
inspiral. However, if we relax our assumption for the slope of the inner edge,
then the current sample of hot Jupiters is not sufficient to provide a precise
constraint on both the location and power law index of the inner edge.

\\ ( http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0510198 , 21kb)