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A recent study suggests that the observed multiplicity of super-Earth (SE)systems is correlated with stellar overdensities: field stars in highphase-space density environments have an excess of single-planet systemscompared to stars in low density fields. This correlation is puzzling asstellar clustering is expected to influence mostly the outer part of planetarysystems. Here we examine the possibility that stellar flybys indirectly excitethe mutual inclinations of initially coplanar SEs, breaking their co-transitinggeometry. We propose that flybys excite the inclinations of exterior substellarcompanions, which then propagate the perturbation to the inner SEs. Usinganalytical calculations of the secular coupling between SEs and companions,together with numerical simulations of stellar encounters, we estimate theexpected number of "effective" flybys per planetary system that lead to thedestruction of the SE co-transiting geometry. Our analytical results can berescaled easily for various SE and companion properties (masses and semi-majoraxes) and stellar cluster parameters (density, velocity dispersion andlifetime). We show that for a given SE system, there exists an optimalcompanion architecture that leads to the maximum number of effective flybys;this results from the trade-off between the flyby cross section and thecompanion's impact on the inner system. Subject to uncertainties in the clusterparameters, we conclude that this mechanism is inefficient if the SE system hasa single exterior companion, but may play an important role in "SE + twocompanions" systems that were born in dense stellar clusters. Whether thiseffect causes the observed correlation between planet multiplicity and stellaroverdensities remains to be confirmed.

monthly notices of the royal astronomical society

The Impact of Stellar Clustering on the Observed Multiplicity of  Super-Earth systems: Outside-in Cascade of Orbital Misalignments Initiated by  Stellar Flybys