2020/11/05 by Ana Luisa Tió Humphrey, Elisa V. Quintana, Humphrey, Ana Luisa Tió +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) #FOS: Physical sciences #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2011.03053
openalex publication_date 2020/11/05 · openalex created_date 2022/07/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present a new analytical method to identify potential missed planets in\nmultiplanet systems found via transit surveys such as those conducted by Kepler\nand TESS. Our method depends on quantifying a system's dynamical packing in\nterms of the dynamical spacing \Δ, the number of mutual Hill radii\nbetween adjacent planets ("planet pair"). The method determines if a planet\npair within a multi-planet system is dynamically unpacked and thus capable of\nhosting an additional intermediate planet. If a planet pair is found to be\nunpacked, our method constrains the potential planet's mass and location. We\napply our method to the Kepler primary mission's population of 691\nmulti-candidate systems, first via direct calculations and then via Monte Carlo\n(MC) analysis. The analysis was repeated with three proposed values from the\nliterature for minimum \Δ required for planet pair orbital stability\n(\Δ = 10, 12.3, and 21.7). Direct calculations show that as many as\n560 planet pairs in 691 Kepler multi-candidate systems could contain\nadditional planets (\Δ = 12.3). The MC analysis shows that 164 of these\npairs have a probability \≥ 0.90 of being unpacked. Furthermore, according\nto calculated median mass efficiencies calculated from packed Kepler systems,\n28.2 % of these potential planets could be Earths and Sub-Earths. If these\nplanets exist, the masses and semimajor axes predicted here could facilitate\ndetection by characterizing expected detection signals. Ultimately,\nunderstanding the dynamical packing of multi-planet systems could help\ncontribute to our understanding of their architectures and formation.\n