Related papers: The Heavy Element Masses of Extrasolar Giant Plane…
Nine extrasolar planets with masses between 110 and 430M are known to transit their star. The knowledge of their masses and radii allows an estimate of their composition, but uncertainties on equations of state, opacities and possible…
Exoplanet discoveries of recent years have provided a great deal of new data for studying the bulk compositions of giant planets. Here we identify 47 transiting giant planets ($20 M_\oplus < M < 20 M_{\mathrm{J}}$) whose stellar insolation…
In principle, the combined measurements of the mass and radius a giant exoplanet allow one to determine the relative fraction of hydrogen and helium and of heavy elements in the planet. However, uncertainties on the underlying physics imply…
The relationship between the compositions of giant planets and their host stars is of fundamental interest in understanding planet formation. The solar system giant planets are enhanced above solar composition in metals, both in their…
Theoretical studies of giant planet formation suggest that substantial quantities of metals - elements heavier than hydrogen and helium - can be delivered by solid accretion during the envelope-assembly phase. This metal enhancement process…
The rate at which giant planets accumulate solids and gas is a critical component of planet formation models, yet it is extremely challenging to predict from first principles. Characterizing the heavy element (everything other than hydrogen…
Context. The discovery of about 700 extrasolar planets, so far, has lead to the first statistics concerning extrasolar planets. The presence of giant planets seems to depend on stellar metallicity and mass. For example, they are more…
Gas giants orbiting interior to the ice line are thought to have been displaced from their formation locations by processes that remain debated. Here we uncover several new metallicity trends, which together may indicate that two competing…
Atmospheric metal enrichment (i.e., elements heavier than helium, also called "metallicity") is a key diagnostic of the formation of giant planets. The giant planets of the solar system exhibit an inverse relationship between mass and both…
The origin of close-in giant planets is a key open question in planet formation theory. The two leading models are (i) formation at the outer disk followed by migration and (ii) in situ formation. In this work we determine the atmospheric…
Discovery of only handful of exoplanets required to establish a correlation between giant planet occurrence and metallicity of their host stars. More than 20 years have already passed from that discovery, however, many questions are still…
Probing the connection between a star's metallicity and the presence and properties of any associated planets offers an observational link between conditions during the epoch of planet formation and mature planetary systems. We explore this…
We investigate the giant planet-metallicity correlation for a homogeneous, unbiased set of 217 hot Jupiters taken from nearly 15 years of wide-field ground-based surveys. We compare the host star metallicity to that of field stars using the…
The giant planet-metallicity correlation revealed that planetary formation depends on the stellar properties. There is growing evidence that it is also valid for smaller hot planets, but it is not clear whether elements other than iron also…
Some Jupiter-mass exoplanets contain $\sim$$100\, M_\oplus$ of metals, well above the $\sim$$10\, M_\oplus$ typically needed in a solid core to trigger giant planet formation by runaway gas accretion. We demonstrate that such `heavy-metal…
In order to characterize giant exoplanets and better understand their origin, knowledge of how the planet's composition depends on its mass and stellar environment is required. In this work, we simulate the thermal evolution of gaseous…
Correlations between stellar properties and the occurrence rate of exoplanets can be used to inform the target selection of future planet search efforts and provide valuable clues about the planet formation process. We analyze a sample of…
The core accretion model for giant planet formation suggests a two layer picture for the initial structure of Jovian planets, with heavy elements in a dense core and a thick H-He envelope. Late planetesimal accretion and core erosion could…
The metallicity of exoplanet systems serves as a critical diagnostic of planet formation mechanisms. Previous studies have demonstrated the planet-metallicity correlation for large planets ($R_P\ \geq\ 4\ R_E$); however, a correlation has…
The composition and internal structure of gas giant exoplanets encode key information about their formation and evolution. We investigate how different assumed interior structures affect the inferred bulk metallicity and its correlation…