The imprint of X-ray photoevaporation of planet-forming discs on the orbital distribution of giant planets
Abstract
High-energy radiation from a planet host star can have strong influence on the final habitability of a system through several mechanisms. In this context we have constructed a catalogue containing the X-ray luminosities, as well as basic stellar and planetary properties of all known stars hosting giant planets (> 0.1 MJ) that have been observed by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, XMM-Newton, and/or ROSAT. Specifically in this paper we present a first application of this catalogue to search for a possible imprint of X-ray photoevaporation of planet-forming discs on the present-day orbital distribution of the observed giant planets. We found a suggestive void in the semimajor axis, a, versus X-ray luminosity, Lx, plane, roughly located between a ∼ 0.05-1 au and Lx ∼ 1027-10^{29} erg s^{-1}, which would be expected if photoevaporation played a dominant role in the migration history of these systems. However, due to the small observational sample size, the statistical significance of this feature cannot be proven at this point.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- March 2019
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/sty3346
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1812.02173
- Bibcode:
- 2019MNRAS.483.3448M
- Keywords:
-
- planets and satellites: formation;
- planet-disc interactions;
- protoplanetary discs;
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 12 pages