K2ﾠReveals Pulsed Accretion Driven by the 2 Myr Old Hot Jupiter CI Tau b

Abstract

CIﾠTau is a young (~2 Myr) classical T Tauri star located in the Taurus star-forming region. Radial velocity observations indicate it hosts a Jupiter-sized planet with an orbital period of approximately 9 days. In this work, we analyze time series of CIﾠTau's photometric variability as seen byﾠK2. The light curve reveals the stellar rotation period to be ~6.6 days. Although there is no evidence that CIﾠTau b transits the host star, a ~9 day signature is also present in the light curve. We believe this is most likely caused by planetﾖdisk interactions that perturb the accretion flow onto the star, resulting in a periodic modulation of the brightness with the ~9 day period of the planet's orbit.