TrES-4: A Transiting Hot Jupiter of Very Low Density

Abstract

We report the discovery of TrES-4, a hot Jupiter that transits the star GSC 02620-00648 every 3.55 days. From high-resolution spectroscopy of the star, we estimate a stellar effective temperature of T_(eff) = 6100 ± 150 K, and from high-precision z and B photometry of the transit we constrain the ratio of the semimajor axis a and the stellar radius R_* to be a/R_* = 6.03 ± 0.13. We compare these values to model stellar isochrones to constrain the stellar mass to be M_* = 1.22 ± 0.17 M_⊙. Based on this estimate and the photometric time series, we constrain the stellar radius to be R_* = 1.738 ± 0.092 R_⊙ and the planet radius to be R_p = 1.674 ± 0.094 R_(Jup). We model our radial velocity data assuming a circular orbit and find a planetary mass of 0.84 ± 0.10 M_(Jup). Our radial velocity observations rule out line-bisector variations that would indicate a specious detection resulting from a blend of an eclipsing binary system. TrES-4 has the largest radius and lowest density of any of the known transiting planets. It presents a challenge to current models of the physical structure of hot Jupiters and indicates that the diversity of physical properties among the members of this class of exoplanets has yet to be fully explored.

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