Recent analyses of Kepler space telescope data reveal that transiting planets with orbital periods shorter than 2 - 3 days are generally observed around late-type stars with rotation periods longer than \sim 5 - 10 days .
We investigate different explanations for this phenomenon and favor an interpretation based on secular perturbations in multi-planet systems on non-resonant orbits .
In those systems , the orbital eccentricity of the innermost planet can reach values close to unity through a process of chaotic diffusion of its orbital elements in the phase space .
When the eccentricity of the innermost orbit becomes so high that the periastron gets closer than \sim 0.05 AU , tides shrink and circularize the orbit producing a close-in planet on a timescale \lesssim 50 Myr .
The probability of high eccentricity excitation and subsequent circularization is estimated and is found to increase with the age of the system .
Thus , we are able to explain the observed statistical correlation between stellar rotation and minimum orbital period of the innermost planet by using the stellar rotation period as a proxy of its age through gyrochronology .
Moreover , our model is consistent with the entire observed distributions of the rotation and orbital periods P _ { orb } for 3 \lesssim P _ { orb } \lesssim 15 days .