Related papers: Testing In Situ Assembly with the Kepler Planet Ca…
A large fraction of stars host one or multiple close-in super-Earth planets. There is an active debate about whether these planets formed in situ or at greater distances from the central star and migrated to their current position. It has…
We use simulated planetary systems to model the planet multiplicity of Kepler stars. Previous studies have underproduced single planet systems and invoked the so called Kepler dichotomy, where the planet forming ability of a Kepler star is…
The multiple-planet systems discovered by the Kepler mission exhibit the following feature: planet pairs near first-order mean-motion resonances prefer orbits just outside the nominal resonance, while avoiding those just inside the…
Observations have confirmed the existence of multiple-planet systems containing a hot Jupiter and smaller planetary companions. Examples include WASP-47, Kepler-730, and TOI-1130. We examine the plausibility of forming such systems in situ…
Population synthesis models of planetary systems developed during the last $\sim$15 years could reproduce several of the observables of the exoplanet population, and also allowed to constrain planetary formation models. We present our…
We demonstrate that the observed distribution of `Hot Neptune'/`Super-Earth' systems is well reproduced by a model in which planet assembly occurs in situ, with no significant migration post-assembly. This is achieved only if the amount of…
The size of a planet is an observable property directly connected to the physics of its formation and evolution. We used precise radius measurements from the California-Kepler Survey (CKS) to study the size distribution of 2025…
To improve our understanding of orbital instabilities in compact planetary systems, we compare suites of $N$-body simulations against numerical integrations of simplified dynamical models. We show that, surprisingly, dynamical models that…
Observations in the past decade have revealed extrasolar planets with a wide range of orbital semimajor axes and eccentricities. Based on the present understanding of planet formation via core accretion and oligarchic growth, we expect that…
Doppler planet searches revealed that many giant planets orbit close to their host star or in highly eccentric orbits. These and subsequent observations inspired new theories of planet formation that invoke gravitation interactions in…
We study the final architecture of planetary systems that evolve under the combined effects of planet-planet and planetesimal scattering. Using N-body simulations we investigate the dynamics of marginally unstable systems of gas and ice…
A significant fraction of Kepler systems are closely-packed, largely coplanar and circular. We study the stability of a 6-planet system, Kepler-11, to gain insights on the dynamics and formation history of such systems. Using a technique…
Some systems of close-in "super-Earths" contain five or more planets on non-resonant but compact and nearly coplanar orbits. The Kepler-11 system is an iconic representative of this class of system. It is challenging to explain their…
We carry out an independent search of Kepler photometry for small transiting planets with sizes 0.5--8.0 times that of Earth and orbital periods between 5 and 50 days, with the goal of measuring the fraction of stars harboring such planets.…
The physical mechanisms that regulate the collapse of high-mass parsec-scale clumps and allow them to form clusters of new stars represent a crucial aspect of star formation. To investigate these mechanisms, we developed the Rosetta Stone…
This paper constructs a theoretical framework for calculating the distribution of masses for gas giant planets forming via the core accretion paradigm. Starting with known properties of circumstellar disks, we present models for the…
Building the terrestrial planets has been a challenge for planet formation models. In particular, classical theories have been unable to reproduce the small mass of Mars and instead predict that a planet near 1.5 AU should roughly be the…
The high number of planet discoveries made in the last years provides a good sample for statistical analysis, leading to some clues on the distributions of planet parameters, like masses and periods, at least in close proximity to the host…
At least two multi-planetary systems in a 4:3 mean motion resonance have been found by radial velocity surveys. These planets are gas giants and the systems are only stable when protected by a resonance. Additionally the Kepler mission has…
The final "giant-impact" phase of terrestrial planet formation is believed to begin with a large number of planetary "embryos" on nearly circular, coplanar orbits. Mutual gravitational interactions gradually excite their eccentricities…