No Arabic abstract
It is still being debated whether the well-known metallicity - giant planet correlation for dwarf stars is also valid for giant stars. For this reason, having precise metallicities is very important. Different methods can provide different results that lead to discrepancies in the analysis of planet hosts. To study the impact of different analyses on the metallicity scale for evolved stars, we compare different iron line lists to use in the atmospheric parameter derivation of evolved stars. Therefore, we use a sample of 71 evolved stars with planets. With these new homogeneous parameters, we revisit the metallicity - giant planet connection for evolved stars. A spectroscopic analysis based on Kurucz models in local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) was performed through the MOOG code to derive the atmospheric parameters. Two different iron line list sets were used, one built for cool FGK stars in general, and the other for giant FGK stars. Masses were calculated through isochrone fitting, using the Padova models. Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests (K-S tests) were then performed on the metallicity distributions of various different samples of evolved stars and red giants. All parameters compare well using a line list set, designed specifically for cool and solar-like stars to provide more accurate temperatures. All parameters derived with this line list set are preferred and are thus adopted for future analysis. We find that evolved planet hosts are more metal-poor than dwarf stars with giant planets. However, a bias in giant stellar samples that are searched for planets is present. Because of a colour cut-off, metal-rich low-gravity stars are left out of the samples, making it hard to compare dwarf stars with giant stars. Furthermore, no metallicity enhancement is found for red giants with planets ($log g < 3.0$,dex) with respect to red giants without planets.
Context. Precise stellar parameters are crucial in exoplanet research for correctly determining of the planetary parameters. For stars hosting a transiting planet, determining of the planetary mass and radius depends on the stellar mass and radius, which in turn depend on the atmospheric stellar parameters. Different methods can provide different results, which leads to different planet characteristics.}%Spectroscopic surface gravities have shown to be poorly constrained, but the photometry of the transiting planet can provide an independent measurement of the surface gravity. Aims. In this paper, we use a uniform method to spectroscopically derive stellar atmospheric parameters, chemical abundances, stellar masses, and stellar radii for a sample of 90 transit hosts. Surface gravities are also derived photometrically using the stellar density as derived from the light curve. We study the effect of using these different surface gravities on the determination of the chemical abundances and the stellar mass and radius. Methods. A spectroscopic analysis based on Kurucz models in LTE was performed through the MOOG code to derive the atmospheric parameters and the chemical abundances. The photometric surface gravity was determined through isochrone fitting and the use of the stellar density, directly determined from the light curve. Stellar masses and radii are determined through calibration formulae. Results. Spectroscopic and photometric surface gravities differ, but this has very little effect on the precise determination of the stellar mass in our spectroscopic analysis. The stellar radius, and hence the planetary radius, is most affected by the surface gravity discrepancies. For the chemical abundances, the difference is, as expected, only noticable for the abundances derived from analyzing of lines of ionized species.
Close binaries suppress the formation of circumstellar (S-type) planets and therefore significantly bias the inferred planet occurrence rates and statistical trends. After compiling various radial velocity and high-resolution imaging surveys, we determine that binaries with a < 1 au fully suppress S-type planets, binaries with a = 10 au host close planets at 15% the occurrence rate of single stars, and wide binaries with a > 200 au have a negligible effect on close planet formation. We show that F = 43% +/- 7% of solar-type primaries do not host close planets due to suppression by close stellar companions. By removing spectroscopic binaries from their samples, radial velocity surveys for giant planets boost their detection rates by a factor of 1/(1-F) = 1.8 +/- 0.2 compared to transiting surveys. This selection bias fully accounts for the discrepancy in hot Jupiter occurrence rates inferred from these two detection methods. Correcting for both planet suppression by close binaries and transit dilution by wide binaries, the occurrence rate of small planets orbiting single G-dwarfs is 2.1 +/- 0.3 times larger than the rate inferred from all G-dwarfs in the Kepler survey. Additionally, about half (but not all) of the observed increase in small, short-period planets toward low-mass hosts can be explained by the corresponding decrease in the binary fraction. Finally, we demonstrate that the apparent enhancement of wide stellar companions to hot Jupiter hosts is due to multiple selection effects. Very close binaries, brown dwarf companions, and massive planets with M_2 > 7 M_J within a < 0.2 au preferentially have metal-poor hosts and wide tertiary companions, but genuine hot Jupiters with M_p = 0.2-4 M_J that formed via core accretion instead favor metal-rich hosts and do not exhibit a statistically significant excess of wide stellar companions.
The formation of planets within a disc must operate within the time frame of disc dispersal, it is thus crucial to establish what is the dominant process that disperses the gaseous component of discs around young stars. Planet formation itself as well as photoevaporation by energetic radiation from the central young stellar object have been proposed as plausible dispersal mechanisms. [abridged]. In this paper we use the different metallicity dependance of X-ray photoevaporation and planet formation to discriminate between these two processes. We study the effects of metallicity, Z, on the dispersal timescale, t_phot, in the context of a photoevaporation model, by means of detailed thermal calculations of a disc in hydrostatic equilibrium irradiated by EUV and X-ray radiation from the central source. Our models show t_phot propto Z^0.52 for a pure photoevaporation model. By means of analytical estimates we derive instead a much stronger negative power dependance on metallicity of the disc lifetime for a dispersal model based on planet formation. A census of disc fractions in lower metallicity regions should therefore be able to distinguish between the two models. A recent study by Yasui et al. in low metallicity clusters of the extreme outer Galaxy ([O/H] ~- 0.7dex and dust to gas ratio of ~0.001) provides preliminary observational evidence for shorter disc lifetimes at lower metallicities, in agreement with the predictions of a pure photoevaporation model. [abridged] We finally develop an analytical framework to study the effects of metallicity dependent photoevaporation on the formation of gas giants in the core accretion scenario. We show that accounting for this effect strengthens the conclusion that planet formation is favoured at higher metallicity. [abridged]
We report homogeneous spectroscopic determinations of the effective temperature, metallicity, and projected rotational velocity for the host stars of 56 transiting planets. Our analysis is based primarily on the Stellar Parameter Classification (SPC) technique. We investigate systematic errors by examining subsets of the data with two other methods that have often been used in previous studies (SME and MOOG). The SPC and SME results, both based on comparisons between synthetic spectra and actual spectra, show strong correlations between temperature, [Fe/H], and log g when solving for all three quantities simultaneously. In contrast the MOOG results, based on a more traditional curve-of-growth approach, show no such correlations. To combat the correlations and improve the accuracy of the temperatures and metallicities, we repeat the SPC analysis with a constraint on log g based on the mean stellar density that can be derived from the analysis of the transit light curves. Previous studies that have not taken advantage of this constraint have been subject to systematic errors in the stellar masses and radii of up to 20% and 10%, respectively, which can be larger than other observational uncertainties, and which also cause systematic errors in the planetary mass and radius.
The growing database of exoplanets have shown us the statistical characteristics of various exoplanet populations, providing insight towards their origins. Observational evidence suggests that the process by which gas giants are conceived in the stellar disk may be disparate from that of smaller planets. Using NASAs Exoplanet Archive, we analyzed a correlation between the planet mass and stellar metallicity of low-mass exoplanets (MP < 0.13 MJ) orbiting spectral class G, K, and M stars. The correlation suggests an exponential law relationship between the two that is not fully explained by observation biases alone.