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Register a new userAbout 30% of Sun-like Stars Have Kepler-like Planetary Systems: A Study of their Intrinsic Architecture
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We constrain the intrinsic architecture of Kepler planetary systems by modeling the observed multiplicities of the transiting planets (tranets) and their transit timing variations (TTVs). We robustly determine that the fraction of Sun-like stars with Kepler-like planets, $eta_{rm Kepler}$, is $30pm3%$. Here Kepler-like planets are planets that have radii $R_{rm p} gtrsim R_oplus$ and orbital periods $P<400$~days. Our result thus significantly revises previous claims that more than 50% of Sun-like stars have such planets. Combining with the average number of Kepler planets per star ($sim0.9$), we obtain that on average each planetary system has $3.0pm0.3$ planets within 400 days. We also find that the dispersion in orbital inclinations of planets within a given planetary system, $sigma_{i,k}$, is a steep function of its number of planets, $k$. This can be parameterized as $sigma_{i,k}propto k^alpha$ and we find that $-4<alpha<-2$ at 2-$sigma$ level. Such a distribution well describes the observed multiplicities of both tranets and TTVs with no excess of single tranets. Therefore we do not find evidence supporting the so-called Kepler dichotomy. Together with a previous study on orbital eccentricities, we now have a consistent picture: the fewer planets in a system, the hotter it is dynamically. We discuss briefly possible scenarios that lead to such a trend. Despite our Solar system not belonging to the Kepler club, it is interesting to notice that the Solar system also has three planets within 400 days and that the inclination dispersion is similar to Kepler systems of the same multiplicity.
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We study the distribution of the photometric rotation period (Prot), which is a direct measurement of the surface rotation at active latitudes, for three subsamples of Sun-like stars: one from CoRoT data and two from Kepler data. We identify the main populations of these samples and interpret their main biases specifically for a comparison with the solar Prot. Prot and variability amplitude (A) measurements were obtained from public CoRoT and Kepler catalogs combined with physical parameters. Because these samples are subject to selection effects, we computed synthetic samples with simulated biases to compare with observations, particularly around the location of the Sun in the HR diagram. Theoretical grids and empirical relations were used to combine physical parameters with Prot and A. Biases were simulated by performing cutoffs on the physical and rotational parameters in the same way as in each observed sample. A crucial cutoff is related with the detectability of the rotational modulation, which strongly depends on A. The synthetic samples explain the observed Prot distributions of Sun-like stars as having two main populations: one of young objects (group I, with ages younger than ~1 Gyr) and another of MS and evolved stars (group II, with ages older than ~1 Gyr). The proportions of groups I and II in relation to the total number of stars range within 64-84% and 16-36%, respectively. Hence, young objects abound in the distributions, producing the effect of observing a high number of short periods around the location of the Sun in the HR diagram. Differences in the Prot distributions between the CoRoT and Kepler Sun-like samples may be associated with different Galactic populations. Overall, the synthetic distribution around the solar period agrees with observations, which suggests that the solar rotation is normal with respect to Sun-like stars within the accuracy of current data.
Stellar members of binary systems are formed from the same material, therefore they should be chemically identical. However, recent high-precision studies have unveiled chemical differences between the two members of binary pairs composed by Sun-like stars. The very existence of these chemically inhomogeneous binaries represents one of the most contradictory examples in stellar astrophysics and source of tension between theory and observations. It is still unclear whether the abundance variations are the result of chemical inhomogeneities in the protostellar gas clouds or instead if they are due to planet engulfment events occurred after the stellar formation. While the former scenario would undermine the belief that the chemical makeup of a star provides the fossil information of the environment where it formed, a key assumption made by several studies of our Galaxy, the second scenario would shed light on the possible evolutionary paths of planetary systems. Here, we perform a statistical study on 107 binary systems composed by Sun-like stars to provide - for the first time - unambiguous evidence in favour of the planet engulfment scenario. We also establish that planet engulfment events occur in stars similar to our own Sun with a probability ranging between 20 and 35$%$. This implies that a significant fraction of planetary systems undergo very dynamical evolutionary paths that can critically modify their architectures, unlike our Solar System which has preserved its planets on nearly circular orbits. This study also opens to the possibility of using chemical abundances of stars to identify which ones are the most likely to host analogues of the calm Solar System.
We present data obtained with the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) aboard the Spitzer Space Telescope (Spitzer) for a sample of 74 young (t < 30 Myr old) Sun-like (0.7 < M(star)/M(Sun) < 1.5) stars. These are a sub-set of the observations that comprise the Spitzer Legacy science program entitled the Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems (FEPS). Using IRAC we study the fraction of young stars that exhibit 3.6-8.0 micron infrared emission in excess of that expected from the stellar photosphere, as a function of age from 3-30 Myr. The most straightforward interpretation of such excess emission is the presence of hot (300-1000K) dust in the inner regions (< 3 AU) of a circumstellar disk. Five out of the 74 young stars show a strong infrared excess, four of which have estimated ages of 3-10 Myr. While we detect excesses from 5 optically thick disks, and photospheric emission from the remainder of our sample, we do not detect any excess emission from optically thin disks at these wavelengths. We compare our results with accretion disk fractions detected in previous studies, and use the ensemble results to place additional constraints on the dissipation timescales for optically-thick, primordial disks.
We present an analysis of ~5 years of Lick Observatory radial velocity measurements targeting a uniform sample of 31 intermediate-mass subgiants (1.5 < M*/Msun < 2.0) with the goal of measuring the occurrence rate of Jovian planets around (evolved) A-type stars and comparing the distributions of their orbital and physical characteristics to those of planets around Sun-like stars. We provide updated orbital solutions incorporating new radial velocity measurements for five known planet-hosting stars in our sample; uncertainties in the fitted parameters are assessed using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo method. The frequency of Jovian planets interior to 3 AU is 26 (+9,-8)%, which is significantly higher than the ~5-10% frequency observed around solar-mass stars. The median detection threshold for our sample includes minimum masses down to {0.2, 0.3, 0.5, 0.6, 1.3} MJup within {0.1, 0.3, 0.6, 1.0, 3.0} AU. To compare the properties of planets around intermediate-mass stars to those around solar-mass stars we synthesize a population of planets based on the parametric relationship dN ~ M^{alpha}P^{beta} dlnM dlnP, the observed planet frequency, and the detection limits we derived. We find that the values of alpha and beta for planets around solar-type stars from Cumming et al. fail to reproduce the observed properties of planets in our sample at the 4 sigma level, even when accounting for the different planet occurrence rates. Thus, the properties of planets around A stars are markedly different than those around Sun-like stars, suggesting that only a small (~ 50%) increase in stellar mass has a large influence on the formation and orbital evolution of planets.
Magnetic fields play an important role at all stages of stellar evolution. In Sun-like stars, they are generated in the outer convective layers. Studying the large-scale magnetic fields of these stars enlightens our understanding of the field properties and gives us observational constraints for the field generation models. In this review, I summarise the current observational picture of the large-scale magnetic fields of Sun-like stars, in particular solar-twins and planet-host stars. I discuss the observations of large-scale magnetic cycles, and compare these cycles to the solar cycle.
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