Evidence for a lost population of close-in exoplanets |
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| Authors: | Timothy A Davis Peter J Wheatley |
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| Institution: | Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry CV4 7AL;Sub-Department of Astrophysics, University of Oxford, Denys Wilkinson Building, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH |
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| Abstract: | We investigate the evaporation history of known transiting exoplanets in order to consider the origin of observed correlations between mass, surface gravity and orbital period. We show that the survival of the known planets at their current separations is consistent with a simple model of evaporation, but that many of the same planets would not have survived closer to their host stars. These putative closer-in systems represent a lost population that could account for the observed correlations. We conclude that the relation underlying the correlations noted by Mazeh et al. and Southworth et al. is most likely a linear cut-off in the M 2/ R 3 versus a ?2 plane, and we show that the distribution of exoplanets in this plane is in close agreement with the evaporation model. |
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| Keywords: | planetary systems X-rays: stars |
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