Title: Valleys and Gaps: Connection Between Orbital Architectures and Exoplanet Sizes
Abstract:
The distribution of exoplanet sizes provides critical clues about planet formation and evolution. Leveraging a large sample of multiplanet systems discovered by the Kepler space telescope, we have identified a significant correlation between a system's gap complexity—the regularity of orbital spacing—and the planet radius distribution. Our findings reveal that systems with irregular spacings are dominated by super-Earths, while systems with uniform spacing exhibit a higher prevalence of sub-Earths and a radius valley between equal numbers of super-Earths and sub-Neptunes. These results suggest that the dynamics which create the orbital architecture of a planetary system may also play a key role in atmospheric retention and planetary composition.
Speaker:
David Rice (Astrophysics Research Center of the Open University (ARCO))
