Hot Jupiter accretion: 3D MHD simulations of star-planet wind interaction

We present 3D MHD simulations of the wind-wind interactions between a solar type star and a short period hot Jupiter exoplanet. This is the first such simulation in which the stellar surface evolution is studied in detail. In our simulations, a planetary outflow, based on models of FUV evaporation of the exoplanets upper atmosphere, results in the build-up of circumstellar and circumplanetary material which accretes onto the stellar surface in a form of coronal rain, in which the rain is HJ wind material falling onto the stellar surface. We have conducted a suite of mixed geometry high resolution simulations which characterise the behaviour of interacting stellar and planetary wind material for a representative HJ hosting system. Our results show that magnetic topology plays a central role in forming accretion streams between the star and HJ and that the nature of the accretion is variable both in location and in rate, with the final accretion point occurring at $\phi~=~227^{\circ}$ ahead of the sub-planetary point and $\theta~=~53^{\circ}$ below the orbital plain. The size of the accretion spot itself has been found to vary with a period of $67 \ \mathrm{ks}$. Within the accretion spot, there is a small decrease in temperature accompanied by an increase in density compared with ambient surface conditions. We also demonstrate that magnetic fields cannot be ignored as accretion is highly dependent upon the magnetic topology of both the HJ and the host. We characterise this behaviour as Star Planet Wind Interaction (SPWI)