Recent simulation and observational data have been used to investigate the ability of Kozai oscillations to explain the formation of “hot Jupiter” planetary systems. One of the first exoplanets discovered, τ Boo Ab, orbits a star with a binary companion, making it an excellent testbed for this scenario. We have written a three-dimensional Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulator to constrain the orbit of the distant stellar companion τ Boo B, and are currently deriving orbital parameters and confidence intervals. These orbital parameters will confirm or reject Kozai oscillations as a plausible formation mechanism for τ Boo Ab.
