Related papers: Reassessing Sub-Neptune Structure, Radii, and Ther…
The recent discovery and initial characterization of sub-Neptune-sized exoplanets that receive stellar irradiance of approximately Earth's raised the prospect of finding habitable planets in the coming decade, because some of these…
Formation of planets in the Neptune size range with low-mass, but voluminous, H_2/He gaseous envelopes is modeled by detailed numerical simulations according to the core-nucleated accretion scenario. Formation locations ranging from 0.5 to…
The characterization of Super-Earth-to-Neptune sized exoplanets relies heavily on our understanding of their formation and evolution. In this study, we link a model of planet formation by pebble accretion to the planets' long-term…
Kepler has found hundreds of Neptune-size (2-6 R_Earth) planet candidates within 0.5 AU of their stars. The nature of the vast majority of these planets is not known because their masses have not been measured. Using theoretical models of…
Hot Jupiters receive strong stellar irradiation, producing equilibrium temperatures of $1000 - 2500 \ \mathrm{Kelvin}$. Incoming irradiation directly heats just their thin outer layer, down to pressures of $\sim 0.1 \ \mathrm{bars}$. In…
Models of core accretion assume that in the radiative zones of accreting gas envelopes, radiation diffuses. But super-Earths/sub-Neptunes (1-4$R_\oplus$, 2-20$M_\oplus$) point to formation conditions that are optically thin: their modest…
The trajectories of dust particles ejected from a comet are affected by solar radiation pressure as a function of their ratios of radiation pressure cross section to mass. Therefore, a study on the orbital evolution of the particles caused…
Planet formation impacts exoplanet atmospheres by accreting metals in solid form, leading to atmospheric C/O and S/N ratios that deviate from their host stars. Recent observations indicate differing metal abundances in planetary atmospheres…
We consider the thermal structure and radii of strongly irradiated gas giant planets over a range in mass and irradiating flux. The cooling rate of the planet is sensitive to the surface boundary condition, which depends on the detailed…
Photo-evaporative mass loss sculpts the atmospheric evolution of tightly-orbiting sub-Neptune-mass exoplanets. To date, models of the mass loss from warm Neptunes have assumed that the atmospheric abundances remain constant throughout the…
One of the most significant advances by NASA's ${\mathit Kepler}$ Mission was the discovery of an abundant new population of highly irradiated planets with sizes between the Earth and Neptune. Subsequent analysis showed that at ~1.5 Earth…
Recent discoveries of water-rich, sub-Neptunian to Neptunian-massed exoplanets with short-period orbits present a new parameter space for the study of exoplanetary dynamos. We explore the geometry of the dynamo source region within this…
We investigate equilibrium chemistry between molten metal and silicate, and a hydrogen-rich envelope using 18 independent reactions among 25 phase components for sub-Neptune-like exoplanets. Both reactive metal and unreactive metal…
We present updated non-adiabatic and inhomogeneous evolution models for Uranus and Neptune, employing an interior composition of methane, ammonia, water, and rocks. Following formation trends of the gas giants, Uranus and Neptune formation…
Recent JWST observations of the sub-Neptune GJ 1214 b suggest that it hosts a high-metallicity (>100x solar), hazy atmosphere. Emission spectra of the planet show molecular absorption features, most likely due to atmospheric H2O. In light…
We investigate the effects of radiative energy transfer on a series of nested-grid, high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations of gas and particle dynamics in the vicinity of an Earth-mass planetary embryo. We include heating due to the…
In the presence of a magnetic field and weakly ionizing winds, ohmic dissipation is expected to take place in the envelopes of Jovian and lower-mass planets alike. While the process has been investigated on the former, there have been no…
As a planet ages it cools and its radius shrinks, at a rate set by the efficiency with which heat is transported from the interior out to space. The bottleneck for this transport is at the boundary between the convective interior and the…
Using data from the California-Kepler-Survey (CKS) we study trends in planetary properties with host star metallicity for close-in planets. By incorporating knowledge of the properties of the planetary radius gap identified by the CKS…
We constrain the planetary atmospheric mass fraction at the time of the dispersal of the protoplanetary disk and the evolution of the stellar rotation rate for a dozen multi-planet systems that host sub-Neptunes and/or super-Earths. We…