Wing-wing Interaction - When Exoplanets interact with each other
- Universität zu Köln, Germany
Electromagnetic Star-Planet Interaction is a phenomenon that occurs when a planet is sufficiently close to its host star that Alfvén waves propagate to the star and can leave an imprint on the star. The resulting structure is called Alfvén wing. Stars also often have open field-line structures due to the influence of the stellar wind. In these open field line regions, two planets can share the same set of field lines at the same time. Therefore, it is possible that Alfvén wings interact with each other and cause a time-variability in the signal. We call this process wing-wing interaction. To understand wing-wing interaction further, we apply a three dimensional, fully time-dependent, magnetohydrodynamic model. There, we simulate two planets that generate star-planet interaction and eventually undergo wing-wing interaction. We present the temporal evolution of the Alfvén wings and of the Poynting flux. From these results, we can estimate how wing-wing interaction could appear in observations.
How to cite: Fischer, C. and Saur, J.: Wing-wing Interaction - When Exoplanets interact with each other , European Planetary Science Congress 2021, online, 13–24 Sep 2021, EPSC2021-827, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2021-827, 2021.