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We report the discovery and complex analyses of the first two compact hierarchical triple star systems discovered with TESS in or near its southern continuous viewing zone during Year 1. Both TICs 167692429 and 220397947 were previously unknown eclipsing binaries, and the presence of a third companion star was inferred from eclipse timing variations exhibiting signatures of strong 3rd-body perturbations and, in the first system, also from eclipse depth variations. We carried out comprehensive analyses, including the simultaneous photodynamical modelling of TESS and archival ground-based WASP lightcurves, as well as eclipse timing variation curves. Also, for the first time, we included in the simultaneous fits multiple star spectral energy distribution data and theoretical PARSEC stellar isochrones, taking into account Gaia DR2 parallaxes and cataloged metallicities. We find that both systems have twin F-star binaries and a lower mass tertiary star. In the TIC 167692429 system the inner binary is moderately inclined ($i_{mut}=27^o$) with respect to the outer orbit, and the binary vs. outer (triple) orbital periods are 10.3 vs. 331 days, respectively. The mutually inclined orbits cause a driven precession of the binary orbital plane which leads to the disappearance of binary eclipses for long intervals. In the case of TIC 220397947 the two orbital planes are more nearly aligned and the inner vs. outer orbital periods are 3.5 and 77 days, respectively. In the absence of radial velocity observations, we were unable to calculate highly accurate masses and ages for the two systems. According to stellar isochrones TIC 167692429 might be either a pre-main sequence or an older post-MS system. In the case of TIC 220397947 our solution prefers a young, pre-MS scenario., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Massive companions in close orbits around G dwarfs are thought to undergo rapid orbital decay due to runaway tidal dissipation. We report here the discovery of WASP-128b, a brown dwarf discovered by the WASP survey transiting a G0V host on a $2.2\,\mathrm{d}$ orbit, where the measured stellar rotation rate places the companion in a regime where tidal interaction is dominated by dynamical tides. Under the assumption of dynamical equilibrium, we derive a value of the stellar tidal quality factor $\log{Q_\star'} = 6.96 \pm 0.19$. A combined analysis of ground-based photometry and high-resolution spectroscopy reveals a mass and radius of the host, $M_\star = 1.16 \pm 0.04\,M_\odot$, $R_\star = 1.16 \pm 0.02\,R_\odot$, and for the companion, $M_\mathrm{b} =37.5 \pm 0.8\,M_\mathrm{Jup}$, $R_\mathrm{b} = 0.94 \pm 0.02\,R_\mathrm{Jup}$, placing WASP-128b in the driest parts of the brown dwarf desert, and suggesting a mild inflation for its age. We estimate a remaining lifetime for WASP-128b similar to that of some ultra-short period massive hot Jupiters, and note it may be a propitious candidate for measuring orbital decay and testing tidal theories., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. Accepted in MNRAS. Added references, fixed typos, and clarified some parts of the text

We report the discovery and tomographic detection of WASP-174b, a planet with a near-grazing transit on a 4.23-d orbit around a $V$ = 11.9, F6V star with [Fe/H] = 0.09 $\pm$ 0.09. The planet is in a moderately misaligned orbit with a sky-projected spin-orbit angle of $\lambda$ = 31$^{\circ}$ $\pm$ 1$^{\circ}$. This is in agreement with the known tendency for orbits around hotter stars to be misaligned. Owing to the grazing transit the planet's radius is uncertain, with a possible range of 0.8-1.8 R$_{\rm Jup}$. The planet's mass has an upper limit of 1.3 M$_{\rm Jup}$. WASP-174 is the faintest hot-Jupiter system so far confirmed by tomographic means., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted by MNRAS

We report the joint WASP/KELT discovery of WASP-167b/KELT-13b, a transiting hot Jupiter with a 2.02-d orbit around a $V$ = 10.5, F1V star with [Fe/H] = 0.1 $\pm$ 0.1. The 1.5 R$_{\rm Jup}$ planet was confirmed by Doppler tomography of the stellar line profiles during transit. We place a limit of $, Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, accepted by MNRAS

EL CVn-type binaries contain an A-type dwarf star and a very low mass ($\sim 0.2M_\odot$) helium white dwarf precursor (pre-He WD). Recent surveys and observations have discovered dozens of them, and showed that some pre-He WDs have multi-periodic pulsations, opening up the possibility of using asteroseismology to study the interior structure of these stars. We have studied the formation of EL CVn-type binaries to understand the physics of their formation and give the properties and the space density of this population of stars in the Galaxy. We use a simple analysis to show that EL CVn binaries cannot be produced by rapid common envelope evolution because this process leads to merging of the components when a giant has such a low-mass core. We find that EL CVn-type binaries can be produced by long-term stable mass transfer between low-mass stars in close binary systems. We have comprehensively studied this formation channel and the characteristics of the resulting population of EL CVn-type binaries from more than 65,000 runs of binary evolution with primary star masses between 0.9 and $2.0M_\odot$ and assuming composition appropriate for Population I stars. The theoretical evolutionary tracks, mass ratios and the WD mass-period ($M_{\rm WD}-P$) relation are generally in agreement with observations. We conclude that many more EL CVn-type binaries remain to be discovered and that these binaries will be predominantly low-mass systems in old stellar populations., Comment: 17 pages, 20 figures

We present new measurements of the projected spin--orbit angle $\lambda$ for six WASP hot Jupiters, four of which are new to the literature (WASP-61, -62, -76, and -78), and two of which are new analyses of previously measured systems using new data (WASP-71, and -79). We use three different models based on two different techniques: radial velocity measurements of the Rossiter--McLaughlin effect, and Doppler tomography. Our comparison of the different models reveals that they produce projected stellar rotation velocities ($v \sin I_{\rm s}$) measurements often in disagreement with each other and with estimates obtained from spectral line broadening. The Bou\'e model for the Rossiter--McLaughlin effect consistently underestimates the value of $v\sin I_{\rm s}$ compared to the Hirano model. Although $v \sin I_s$ differed, the effect on $\lambda$ was small for our sample, with all three methods producing values in agreement with each other. Using Doppler tomography, we find that WASP-61\,b ($\lambda=4^\circ.0^{+17.1}_{-18.4}$), WASP-71\,b ($\lambda=-1^\circ.9^{+7.1}_{-7.5}$), and WASP-78\,b ($\lambda=-6^\circ.4\pm5.9$) are aligned. WASP-62\,b ($\lambda=19^\circ.4^{+5.1}_{-4.9}$) is found to be slightly misaligned, while WASP-79\,b ($\lambda=-95^\circ.2^{+0.9}_{-1.0}$) is confirmed to be strongly misaligned and has a retrograde orbit. We explore a range of possibilities for the orbit of WASP-76\,b, finding that the orbit is likely to be strongly misaligned in the positive $\lambda$ direction., Comment: 33 pages. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Funding for WASP comes from consortium universities and from UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council. TRAPPIST is a project funded by the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique, F.R.S.-FNRS) under grant FRFC 2.5.594.09.F, with the participation of the Swiss National Science Fundation (SNF). The Swiss Euler Telescope is operated by the University of Geneva, and is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. LD acknowledges support of the F.R.I.A. fund of the FNRS. MG, EJ and VVG are FNRS Research Associates. ML acknowledges support of the European Research Council through the European Union‘s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC grant agreement number 336480. AHMJT received funding from a fellowship provided by the Swiss National Science Foundation under grant number P300P2-147773.ASis supported by the European Union under a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship for Career Development with reference FP7-PEOPLE- 2013-IEF, number 627202. We present the discovery by the WASP-South survey of WASP-121 b, a new remarkable short-period transiting hot Jupiter. The planet has a mass of 1.183+0.064−0.062 MJup, a radius of 1.865 ± 0.044 RJup, and transits every 1.2749255+0.0000020−0.0000025 days an active F6-type main-sequence star (V = 10.4, 1.353+0.080−0.079 M⊙, 1.458 ± 0.030 R⊙, Teff = 6460 ± 140 K). A notable property of WASP-121 b is that its orbital semimajor axis is only ∼1.15 times larger than its Roche limit, which suggests that the planet is close to tidal disruption. Furthermore, its large size and extreme irradiation (∼7.1 109 erg s−1 cm−2) make it an excellent target for atmospheric studies via secondary eclipse observations. Using the TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope, we indeed detect its emission in the z′-band at better than ∼4σ, the measured occultation depth being 603 ± 130 ppm. Finally, from a measurement of the Rossiter–McLaughlin effect with the CORALIE spectrograph, we infer a sky-projected spin-orbit angle of 257∘.8+5∘.3−5∘.5. This result may suggest a significant misalignment between the spin axis of the host star and the orbital plane of the planet. If confirmed, this high misalignment would favour a migration of the planet involving strong dynamical events with a third body. Publisher PDF