The Prevalence of Resonance Among Young, Close-in Planets

Multiple planets undergoing disk migration may be captured into a chain of mean-motion resonances with the innermost planet parked near the disk’s inner edge. Subsequent dynamical evolution may disrupt these resonances, leading to the nonresonant configurations typically observed among Kepler planets that are Gyr old. In this scenario, resonant configurations are expected to be more common in younger systems. This prediction can now be tested, thanks to recent discoveries of young planets, in particular those in stellar clusters, by NASA’s TESS mission. We divided the known planetary systems into three age groups: young (1 Gyr old). The fraction of neighboring planet pairs having period ratios within a few percent of a first-order commensurability (e.g., 4:3, 3:2, or 2:1) is 70% ± 15% for young pairs, 24% ± 8% for adolescent pairs, and 15% ± 2% for mature pairs. The fraction of systems with at least one nearly commensurable pair (either first- or second-order) is 86% ± 13% among young systems, 38% ± 12% for adolescent systems, and 23% ± 3% for mature systems. First-order commensurabilities prevail across all age groups, with an admixture of second-order commensurabilities. Commensurabilities are more common in systems with high planet multiplicity and low mutual inclinations. Observed period ratios often deviate from perfect commensurability by ∼1% even among young planets, too large to be explained by resonant repulsion with equilibrium eccentricity tides. We also find that super-Earths in the radius gap (1.5–1.9 R ⊕ ) are less likely to be near-resonant (11.9% ± 2.0%) compared to Earth-sized planets ( R p < 1 R ⊕ ; 25.3% ± 4.4%) or mini-Neptunes (1.9 R ⊕ ≤ R p < 2.5 R ⊕ ; 14.4% ± 1.8%).