Peas-in-a-pod across the Radius Valley: Rocky Systems Are Less Uniform in Mass but More Uniform in Size and Spacing

The ubiquity of “peas-in-a-pod” architectural patterns and the existence of the radius valley each presents a striking population-level trend for planets with R p ≤ 4 R ⊕ that serves to place powerful constraints on the formation and evolution of these subgiant worlds. As it has yet to be determined...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Astrophysical journal. Letters 2024-06, Vol.968 (1), p.L4
Main Authors: Goyal, Armaan V., Wang, Songhu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Exoplanet astronomy
Exoplanet evolution
Exoplanet formation
Exoplanet structure
Exoplanet systems
Exoplanets
Extrasolar planets
Mini Neptunes
Orbital resonances (celestial mechanics)
Peas
Planetary system evolution
Size effects
Stellar planets
Super Earths
Terrestrial planets
Valleys
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Summary:The ubiquity of “peas-in-a-pod” architectural patterns and the existence of the radius valley each presents a striking population-level trend for planets with R p ≤ 4 R ⊕ that serves to place powerful constraints on the formation and evolution of these subgiant worlds. As it has yet to be determined whether the strength of this peas-in-a-pod uniformity differs on either side of the radius valley, we separately assess the architectures of systems containing only small ( R p ≤ 1.6 R ⊕ ), rocky planets from those harboring only intermediate-sized (1.6 R ⊕ < R p ≤ 4 R ⊕ ), volatile-rich worlds to perform a novel statistical comparison of intra-system planetary uniformity across compositionally distinct regimes. We find that, compared to their volatile-rich counterparts, rocky systems are less uniform in mass (2.6 σ ) but more uniform in size (4.0 σ ) and spacing (3.0 σ ). We provide further statistical validation for these results, demonstrating that they are not substantially influenced by the presence of mean-motion resonances, low-mass host stars, alternative bulk compositional assumptions, sample size effects, or detection biases. We also obtain tentative evidence (>2 σ significance) that the enhanced size uniformity of rocky systems is dominated by the presence of super-Earths (1 R ⊕ ≤ R p ≤ 1.6 R ⊕ ), while their enhanced mass diversity is driven by the presence of sub-Earth ( R p < 1 R ⊕ ) worlds.
ISSN:2041-8205
2041-8213
DOI:10.3847/2041-8213/ad4f6e