Connecting the formation of stars and planets. II: Coupling the angular momentum of stars with the angular momentum of planets

Abstract

A sample of 46 stars, host of exoplanets, is used to search for a connection between their formation process and the formation of the planets rotating around them. Separating our sample into two, stars hosting high-mass exoplanets (HMEs) and low-mass exoplanets (LMEs), we found the former to be more massive and to rotate faster than the latter. We also found the HMEs to have higher orbital angular momentum than the LMEs and to have lost more angular momentum through migration. These results are consistent with the view that the more massive the star and the higher its rotation, the more massive was its protoplanetarys disk and rotation, and the more efficient was the extraction of angular momentum from the planets.