Related papers: The Super Earth-Cold Jupiter Relations
NASA's Kepler mission identified over 4000 extrasolar planets that transit (cross in front of) their host stars. This sample has revealed detailed features in the demographics of planet sizes and orbital spacings. However, knowledge of…
The mutual inclination between planets orbiting the same star provides key information to understand the formation and evolution of multi-planet systems. In this work, we investigate the potential of Gaia astrometry in detecting and…
In this thesis, I explore two topics in exoplanet science. The first is the prevalence of Earth-size planets in the Milky Way Galaxy. To determine the occurrence of planets having different sizes, orbital periods, and other properties, I…
We propose a stringent observational test on the formation of warm Jupiters (gas-giant planets with 10 d <~ P <~ 100 d) by high-eccentricity (high-e) migration mechanisms. Unlike hot Jupiters, the majority of observed warm Jupiters have…
Exoplanet research focusing on the characterization of super-Earths is currently limited to those handful targets orbiting bright stars that are amenable to detailed study. This Letter proposes to look at alternative avenues to probe the…
Exoplanets around different types of stars provide a window into the diverse environments in which planets form. This chapter describes the observed relations between exoplanet populations and stellar properties and how they connect to…
The probability that a Sun-like star has a close-orbiting giant planet (period < 1 year) increases with stellar metallicity. Previous work provided evidence that the period distribution of close-orbiting giant planets is also linked to…
Radial velocity (RV) surveys have discovered giant exoplanets on au-scale orbits with a broad distribution of eccentricities. Those with the most eccentric orbits are valuable laboratories for testing theories of high eccentricity…
The Solar System includes two planets --- Mercury and Mars --- significantly less massive than Earth, and all evidence indicates that planets of similar size orbit many stars. In fact, one of the first exoplanets to be discovered is a…
We propose a planet formation scenario to explain the elevated occurrence rates of transiting planets around M dwarfs compared to sun-like stars discovered by Kepler. We use a pebble drift and accretion model to simulate the growth of…
The connection between inner small planets and outer giant planets is crucial to our understanding of planet formation across a wide range of orbital separations. While Kepler provided a plethora of compact multi-planet systems at short…
Current measurements of planet population as a function of stellar mass show three seemingly contradictory signatures: close-in super-Earths are more prevalent around M dwarfs than FGK dwarfs; inner super-Earths are correlated with outer…
We study the possibility that hot Jupiters are formed through the secular gravitational interactions between two planets in eccentric orbits with relatively low mutual inclinations ($\lesssim20^\circ$) and friction due to tides raised on…
Among exoplanets, the small-size population constitutes the dominant one, with a diversity of properties and compositions ranging from rocky to gas dominated envelope. While a large fraction of them have masses and radii similar to or…
Warm Jupiters-giant exoplanets with orbital periods between 10 and 200 days-exhibit a broad range of eccentricities and are often accompanied by nearby low-mass planets. Understanding the origins of their orbital architectures requires…
In protoplanetary disks, sufficiently massive planets excite pressure bumps, which can then be preferred locations for forming new planet cores. We discuss how this loop may affect the architecture of multi-planet systems, and compare our…
The widespread prevalence of close-in, nearly coplanar super-Earth- and sub-Neptune-sized planets in multiple-planet systems was one of the most surprising results from the Kepler mission. By studying a uniform sample of Kepler "multis"…
Approximately half of the planets discovered by NASA's Kepler mission are in systems where just a single planet transits its host star, and the remaining planets are observed to be in multi-planet systems. Recent analyses have reported a…
Placing the architecture of the Solar System within the broader context of planetary architectures is one of the primary topics of interest within planetary science. Exoplanet discoveries have revealed a large range of system architectures,…
Earth-sized planets were observed in close-in orbits around M dwarfs. While more and more planets are expected to be uncovered around M dwarfs, theories of their formation and dynamical evolution are still in their infancy. We investigate…