Related papers: Why do more massive stars host larger planets?
We compare the metallicities of stars with radial velocity planets to the metallicity of a sample of field dwarfs. We confirm recent work indicating that the stars-with-planet sample as a whole is iron rich. However, the lowest mass stars…
Exoplanet surveys of evolved stars have provided increasing evidence that the formation of giant planets depends not only on stellar metallicity ([Fe/H]), but also the mass ($M_\star$). However, measuring accurate masses for subgiants and…
We present independent and self-consistent metallicities for a sample of 807 planet-hosting stars from the California-Kepler Survey from an LTE spectroscopic analysis using a selected sample of Fe I and Fe II lines. Correlations between…
We explore the impact of outer stellar companions on the occurrence rate of giant planets detected with radial velocities. We searched for stellar and planetary companions to a volume-limited sample of solar-type stars within 25 pc. Using…
The host stars of extrasolar planets tend to be metal-rich. We have examined the data for these stars for evidence of trends in other galactic parameters, without success. However, several ESP hosts are likely to be members of the thick…
The most irradiated transiting hot Jupiters are characterized by anomalously inflated radii, sometimes exceeding Jupiter's size by more than 60%. While different theoretical explanations have been applied, none of them provide a universal…
We investigate the hypothesis that the size of the habitable zone around hardened binaries in dense star-forming regions increases. Our results indicate that this hypothesis is essentially incorrect. Although certain binary star…
When extrasolar planets are observed to transit their parent stars, we are granted unprecedented access to their physical properties. It is only for transiting planets that we are permitted direct estimates of the planetary masses and…
Theory predicts and observations confirm that low-mass stars (like the Sun) in their early life grow by accreting gas from the surrounding material. But for stars ~ 10 times more massive than the Sun (~10 M_sun), the powerful stellar…
Massive giant planets, such as the ones being discovered by direct imaging surveys, likely experience the majority of their growth through a circumplanetary disc. We argue that the entropy of accreted material is determined by boundary…
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…
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 explore the relations between physical and orbital properties of planets and properties of their host stars to identify the main observable signatures of the formation and evolution processes of planetary systems. We use a large sample…
The potentially important role of stellar irradiation in envelope removal for planets with diameters of $\lessapprox$ 2 R$_{\Earth}$ has been inferred both through theoretical work and the observed bimodal distribution of small planet…
The positive correlation between planet detection rate and host star iron abundance lends strong support to the core accretion theory of planet formation. However, iron is not the most significant mass contributor to the cores of giant…
Much effort has been invested in recent years, both observationally and theoretically, to understand the interacting processes taking place in planetary systems consisting of a hot Jupiter orbiting its star within 10 stellar radii. Several…
We are observing, thanks to ALMA, the dust distribution in the region of active planet formation around young stars. This is a powerful tool to connect observations with theoretical models and improve our understandings of the processes at…
Probabilistic relationships between the mass and radius of planets are useful for a variety of purposes, including estimating the yields of planet discovery efforts and the radii of discovered planets given their masses. Previous work on…
Celestial bodies with a mass of M ~ 10 M_Jup have been found orbiting nearby stars. It is unknown whether these objects formed like gas-giant planets through core accretion or like stars through gravitational instability. I show that…
The observed low densities of gas giant planets with a high equilibrium temperature can be simulated in models when a fraction of the surface radiation is deposited deeper in the interior. Meanwhile migration theories suggest that hot…