Issue |
A&A
Volume 692, December 2024
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A162 | |
Number of page(s) | 13 | |
Section | Planets, planetary systems, and small bodies | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202451252 | |
Published online | 10 December 2024 |
Revisiting the conundrum of the sub-Jovian and Neptune desert
A new approach that incorporates stellar properties
1
Dipartimento di Fisica “Ettore Pancini”, Università di Napoli Federico II,
Napoli,
Italy
2
INFN, Sezione di Napoli, Complesso Universitario di Monte S. Angelo,
Via Cintia Edificio 6,
80126
Napoli,
Italy
3
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte,
via Moiariello 16,
80131
Napoli,
Italy
4
INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania,
Via S. Sofia 78,
95123
Catania,
Italy
5
Science and Technology Department, Parthenope University of Naples,
Naples
80143
Italy
6
European Southern Observatory,
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
85748
Garching bei Munchen, Munchen,
Germany
7
Fakultat fúr Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München,
Scheinerstraße 1,
81679
Munchen,
Germany
8
INAF, Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri,
Largo E. Fermi 5,
50125,
Firenze,
Italy
9
UNESCO Chair “Environment, Resources and Sustainable Development”, Department of Science and Technology, Parthenope University of Naples,
Naples,
Italy
★ Corresponding author; christian.magliano@unina.it
Received:
25
June
2024
Accepted:
18
November
2024
Context. The search for exoplanets has led to the identification of intriguing patterns in their distributions, one of which is the so-called sub-Jovian and Neptune desert. The occurrence rate of Neptunian exoplanets with an orbital period P ≲ 4 days sharply decreases in this region in period-radius and period-mass space.
Aims. We present a novel approach to delineating the sub-Jovian and Neptune desert by considering the incident stellar flux F on the planetary surface as a key parameter instead of the traditional orbital period of the planets. Through this change of perspective, we demonstrate that the incident flux still exhibits a paucity of highly irradiated Neptunes, but also captures the proximity to the host star and the intensity of stellar radiation.
Methods. Leveraging a dataset of confirmed exoplanets, we performed a systematic analysis to map the boundaries of the sub-Jovian and Neptune desert in the (F, Rp) and (F, Mp) diagrams, with Rp and Mp corresponding to the planetary radius and mass, respectively. By using statistical techniques and fitting procedures, we derived analytical expressions for these boundaries that offer valuable insights into the underlying physical mechanisms governing the dearth of Neptunian planets in close proximity to their host stars.
Results. We find that the upper and lower bounds of the desert are well described by a power-law model in the (F, Rp) and (F, Mp) planes. We also obtain the planetary mass-radius relations for each boundary by combining the retrieved analytic expressions in the two planes. This work contributes to advancing our knowledge of exoplanet demographics and to refining theoretical models of planetary formation and evolution within the context of the sub-Jovian and Neptune desert.
Key words: methods: statistical / astronomical databases: miscellaneous / planets and satellites: general
© The Authors 2024
Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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