Planets around A-stars as Anchors for Planet Migration
George Zhou - Harvard
Very few planets have been confirmed around early type main sequence stars, since these are often too rapidly rotating for precise radial velocities to be obtained. Of the ~1900 transiting planets known today, only six have been confirmed to transit stars hotter than T>7000K. However, planets around high mass stars are key pieces of the planet formation puzzle, they are important to understanding giant planet formation and migration. For example, the protoplanetary disk mass around A-type stars should be significantly higher than that around solar-type stars, leading to a higher planet occurrence rate, and dynamically hotter systems. The stellar multiplicity rate is also higher for higher mass stars. Will the dynamically hotter environment around A-type planet-hosting stars result in different hot-Jupiter migrational pathways than around solar-type stars? We are using the Doppler tomography technique to confirm and characterise these planets around A-stars. I will detail our recent discoveries with the K2, KELT, and HAT surveys, and describe the next steps in defining the planet migration pathways that lead to these hot-Jupiters in the context of TESS.
Coffee and Donuts served at 2:30pm in 4054 McPherson Lab.
