Oscillations of Relative Inclination Angles in Compact Extrasolar Planetary Systems

Understand

The Kepler Mission has detected dozens of compact planetary systems with more than four transiting planets.

• This sample provides a collection of close-packed planetary systems with relatively little spread in the inclination angles of the inferred orbits.
• A large fraction of the observational sample contains limited multiplicity, begging the question whether there is a true diversity of multi transiting systems, or if some systems merely possess high mutual inclinations, allowing them to appear as single-transiting systems in a transit-based survey.
• This paper begins an exploration of the effectiveness of dynamical mechanisms in exciting orbital inclination within exoplanetary systems of this class.