Master's Thesis Defense - Kylee Carden

Title: A Short History of (Orbital) Decay: Roman’s Prospects for Detecting Dying Planets

Speaker: Kylee Carden (OSU)

Abstract:

The Roman Space Telescope Galactic Bulge Time Domain Survey (GBTDS) is expected to detect ~10^5 transiting planets. Many of these planets will have short orbital periods and are thus susceptible to tidal decay.  We use a catalog of simulated transiting planet detections to predict the yield of orbital decay detections in the Roman GBTDS.  Assuming a constant stellar tidal dissipation factor, Q, of 10^6, we predict 5-10 detections.  We additionally consider an empirical period-dependent parameterization of Q and find a substantially suppressed yield.  We conclude that Roman will provide constraints on the rate of planet engulfment in the Galaxy and probe the physics of tidal dissipation in stars.