Searching for Giant Exoplanets around M-dwarf Stars (GEMS) I: Survey Motivation

Shubham Kanodia; Caleb I. Cañas; Suvrath Mahadevan; Eric B. Ford; Ravit Helled; Dana E. Anderson; Alan Boss; William D. Cochran; Megan Delamer; Te Han; Jessica E. Libby-Roberts; Andrea S. J. Lin; Simon Müller; Paul Robertson; Gumundur Stefánsson; Johanna Teske

doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ad27cb

The Astronomical Journal (Jan 2024)

Searching for Giant Exoplanets around M-dwarf Stars (GEMS) I: Survey Motivation

Shubham Kanodia,
Caleb I. Cañas,
Suvrath Mahadevan,
Eric B. Ford,
Ravit Helled,
Dana E. Anderson,
Alan Boss,
William D. Cochran,
Megan Delamer,
Te Han,
Jessica E. Libby-Roberts,
Andrea S. J. Lin,
Simon Müller,
Paul Robertson,
Gumundur Stefánsson,
Johanna Teske

Affiliations

Shubham Kanodia: ORCiD; Earth and Planets Laboratory , Carnegie Institution for Science, 5241 Broad Branch Road, NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA ; [email protected]
Caleb I. Cañas: ORCiD; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
Suvrath Mahadevan: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, 525 Davey Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA; Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, 525 Davey Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA
Eric B. Ford: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, 525 Davey Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA; Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, 525 Davey Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA; Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA; Center for Astrostatistics, 525 Davey Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA
Ravit Helled: ORCiD; Center for Theoretical Astrophysics & Cosmology, University of Zurich , Winterthurerstr. 190, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland
Dana E. Anderson: ORCiD; Earth and Planets Laboratory , Carnegie Institution for Science, 5241 Broad Branch Road, NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA ; [email protected]
Alan Boss: ORCiD; Earth and Planets Laboratory , Carnegie Institution for Science, 5241 Broad Branch Road, NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA ; [email protected]
William D. Cochran: ORCiD; McDonald Observatory and Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , USA; Center for Planetary Systems Habitability, The University of Texas at Austin , USA
Megan Delamer: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, 525 Davey Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA; Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, 525 Davey Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA
Te Han: ORCiD; Department of Physics & Astronomy, The University of California , Irvine, CA 92697, USA
Jessica E. Libby-Roberts: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, 525 Davey Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA; Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, 525 Davey Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA
Andrea S. J. Lin: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, 525 Davey Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA; Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, 525 Davey Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA
Simon Müller: ORCiD; Center for Theoretical Astrophysics & Cosmology, University of Zurich , Winterthurerstr. 190, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland
Paul Robertson: ORCiD; Department of Physics & Astronomy, The University of California , Irvine, CA 92697, USA
Gumundur Stefánsson: ORCiD; Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University , 4 Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
Johanna Teske: ORCiD; Earth and Planets Laboratory , Carnegie Institution for Science, 5241 Broad Branch Road, NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA ; [email protected]

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ad27cb
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 167, no. 4
p. 161

Abstract

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Recent discoveries of transiting giant exoplanets around M-dwarf stars (GEMS), aided by the all-sky coverage of TESS, are starting to stretch theories of planet formation through the core-accretion scenario. Recent upper limits on their occurrence suggest that they decrease with lower stellar masses, with fewer GEMS around lower-mass stars compared to solar-type. In this paper, we discuss existing GEMS both through confirmed planets, as well as protoplanetary disk observations, and a combination of tests to reconcile these with theoretical predictions. We then introduce the Searching for GEMS survey, where we utilize multidimensional nonparameteric statistics to simulate hypothetical survey scenarios to predict the required sample size of transiting GEMS with mass measurements to robustly compare their bulk-density with canonical hot Jupiters orbiting FGK stars. Our Monte Carlo simulations predict that a robust comparison requires about 40 transiting GEMS (compared to the existing sample of ∼15) with 5 σ mass measurements. Furthermore, we discuss the limitations of existing occurrence estimates for GEMS and provide a brief description of our planned systematic search to improve the occurrence rate estimates for GEMS.

Published in The Astronomical Journal

ISSN: 0004-6256 (Print); 1538-3881 (Online)
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Science: Astronomy
Website: https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/1538-3881

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