The Effects of Viewing Angle on the Mass Distribution of Exoplanets

López, Sebastián; Jenkins, James S.

doi:10.1088/0004-637x/756/2/177

Cited by 19 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…The observed mass distribution is a key observational constraint for planet formation models, a constraint which has previously been fit by smooth power law trends with indices around -1 (e.g. Butler et al 2006;Lopez & Jenkins 2012). In Fig.…”

Section: Mass Functionmentioning

confidence: 96%

New planetary systems from the Calan–Hertfordshire Extrasolar Planet Search

Jenkins

Jones

Tuomi

et al. 2016

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

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We report the discovery of eight new giant planets, and updated orbits for four known planets, orbiting dwarf and subgiant stars using the CORALIE, HARPS, and MIKE instruments as part of the Calan-Hertfordshire Extrasolar Planet Search. The planets have masses in the range 1.1-5.4M J 's, orbital periods from 40-2900 days, and eccentricities from 0.0-0.6. They include a double-planet system orbiting the most massive star in our sample (HD147873), two eccentric giant planets (HD128356b and HD154672b), and a rare 14 Herculis analogue (HD224538b). We highlight some population correlations from the sample of radial velocity detected planets orbiting nearby stars, including the mass function exponential distribution, confirmation of the growing body of evidence that low-mass planets tend to be found orbiting more metal-poor stars than giant planets, and a possible period-metallicity correlation for planets with masses >0.1 M J , based on a metallicity difference of 0.16 dex between the population of planets with orbital periods less than 100 days and those with orbital periods greater than 100 days.

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Section: Mass Functionmentioning

confidence: 96%

New planetary systems from the Calan–Hertfordshire Extrasolar Planet Search

Jenkins

Jones

Tuomi

et al. 2016

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

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“…Clearly, a knowledge of the precise form of the mass distribution for this (or any) RV survey is precluded until inclinations can be determined accurately via sub-milli-arcsecond astrometric surveys such as GAIA (Sozzetti et al 2001) and SIM (Sozzetti et al 2002), though it would take a remarkable confluence of inclinations for the objects uncovered by the AAPS to alter the underlying distribution of masses. Indeed, recent attempts have been made to recover the 'true' mass distribution (Lopez & Jenkins 2012), with very few of the sub-10 M J objects moving above this mass limit.…”

Section: Mass Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The observed distribution of spectroscopic binaries from the Anglo-Australian Planet Search

Jenkins

Díaz

Jones

et al. 2015

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

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We report the detection of sixteen binary systems from the Anglo-Australian Planet Search. Solutions to the radial velocity data indicate that the stars have companions orbiting with a wide range of masses, eccentricities and periods. Three of the systems potentially contain brown-dwarf companions while another two have eccentricities that place them in the extreme upper tail of the eccentricity distribution for binaries with periods less than 1000 d. For periods up to 12 years, the distribution of our stellar companion masses is fairly flat, mirroring that seen in other radial velocity surveys, and contrasts sharply with the current distribution of candidate planetary masses, which rises strongly below 10 M J . When looking at a larger sample of binaries that have FGK star primaries as a function of the primary star metallicity, we find that the distribution maintains a binary fraction of ∼43 ± 4 per cent between −1.0 and +0.6 dex in metallicity. This is in stark contrast to the giant exoplanet distribution. This result is in good agreement with binary formation models that invoke fragmentation of a collapsing giant molecular cloud, suggesting that this is the dominant formation mechanism for close binaries and not fragmentation of the primary star's remnant protoplanetary disc.

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“…In addition, for each MCMC point we drew an inclination from an isotropic orbital-orientation distribution, i.e., from a sin i probability density function (PDF). By doing so, we actually assumed a flat prior for the mass of Barnard's Star b (e.g., Ho & Turner 2011;Lopez & Jenkins 2012). Given the as yet unknown mass distribution of planets in orbital periods of > 200 days around M dwarfs (e.g., Dressing & Charbonneau 2015), we believe this is a reasonable assumption.…”

Section: Astrometric Signature Of Barnard's Star Bmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prospects for detecting the astrometric signature of Barnard’s Star b

Tal-Or

Zucker

Ribas

et al. 2019

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A low-amplitude periodic signal in the radial velocity (RV) time series of Barnard's Star was recently attributed to a planetary companion with a minimum mass of ∼3.2 M ⊕ at an orbital period of ∼233 days. The relatively long orbital period and the proximity of Barnard's Star to the Sun raises the question whether the true mass of the planet can be constrained by accurate astrometric measurements. By combining the assumption of an isotropic probability distribution of the orbital orientation with the RV analysis results, we calculated the probability density function of the astrometric signature of the planet. In addition, we reviewed the astrometric capabilities and limitations of current and upcoming astrometric instruments. We conclude that Gaia and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) are currently the best-suited instruments to perform the astrometric follow-up observations. Taking the optimistic estimate of their single-epoch accuracy to be ∼ 30 µas, we find a probability of ∼ 10% to detect the astrometric signature of Barnard's Star b with ∼ 50 individual-epoch observations. In case of no detection, the implied mass upper limit would be ∼8 M ⊕ , which would place the planet in the super-Earth mass range. In the next decade, observations with the Wide-Field Infrared Space Telescope (WFIRST) may increase the prospects of measuring the true mass of the planet to ∼99%.

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The Effects of Viewing Angle on the Mass Distribution of Exoplanets

Cited by 19 publications

References 30 publications

New planetary systems from the Calan–Hertfordshire Extrasolar Planet Search

New planetary systems from the Calan–Hertfordshire Extrasolar Planet Search

The observed distribution of spectroscopic binaries from the Anglo-Australian Planet Search

Prospects for detecting the astrometric signature of Barnard’s Star b

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