On the Period Distribution of Close‐in Extrasolar Giant Planets
Open accessAbstract
Transit (TR) surveys for extrasolar planets have recently uncovered a population of "very hot Jupiters," planets with orbital periods of P ≤ 3 days. At first sight this may seem surprising, given that radial velocity (RV) surveys have found a dearth of such planets, despite the fact that their sensitivity increases with decreasing P . We examine the confrontation between RV and TR survey results, paying particular attention to selection biases that favor short-period planets in TR surveys. We demonstrate that, when such biases and small-number statistics are properly taken into account, the period distributions of planets found by RV and TR surveys are consistent at better than the 1 σ level. This consistency holds for a large range of reasonable assumptions. In other words, there are not enough planets detected to robustly conclude that the RV and TR short-period planet results are inconsistent. Assuming a logarithmic distribution of periods, we find that the relative frequency of very hot Jupiters (VHJs; P = 1-3 days) to hot Jupiters (HJs; P = 3-9 days) is ~10%-20%. Given an absolute frequency of HJs of ~1%, this implies that approximately one star in ~500-1000 has a VHJ. We also note that VHJs and HJs appear to be distinct in terms of their upper mass limits. We discuss the implications of our results for planetary migration theories as well as present and future TR and RV surveys.
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The three-day pile-up appears misleadingly large in plots that include hot Jupiters discovered by ground-based transit surveys, for which selection effects sculpt a prominent three-day pile-up.
“We caution that this feature appears misleadingly large in plots that include hot Jupiters discovered by ground-based transit surveys, for which selection effects sculpt a prominent three-day pile-up (see Gaudi, Seager & Mallen-Ornelas 2005 for a discussion of these selection effects).”
From Origins of Hot Jupiters (2018) · cites this paper as Gaudi, Seager & Mallen-Ornelas 2005
Section 3 (page unavailable) says transit surveys are strongly biased toward detecting short-period planets, and Section 2 reports that this bias inflates the observed frequency of 1–3-day planets relative to 3–9-day planets. The paper does not establish that selection effects create a pile-up specifically at three days or quantify how large that feature appears in plots combining transit discoveries. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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Cites
A box-fitting algorithm in the search for periodic transits
Kovács, G., Zucker, S., & Mazeh, T. (2002) · Astronomy & Astrophysics · doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20020802 · Cited by 995 · see citing works
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Research works printed but not linked: 6
- Brown, T. M., & Charbonneau, D. 2000, in ASP Conf. Ser. 219, Disks, Planetesimals, and Planets, ed. F. Garzo ´n et al. (San Francisco: ASP), 584
- Burke, C. J., Depoy, D. L., Gaudi, B. S., & Marshall, J. L. 2003, in ASP Conf. Ser. 294, Scientific Frontiers in Research on Extrasolar Planets, ed. D. Deming & S. Seager (San Francisco: ASP), 379
- Faber, J. A., Rasio, F. A., & Willems, B. 2005, Icarus, in press (astro-ph / 0407318)
- ---. 2005, ApJ, in press (astro-ph/0412400) · arXiv
- Marcy, G., Butler, P., Fischer, D., & Vogt, S. 2004, in ASP Conf. Ser. 321, Extrasolar Planets: Today and Tomorrow, ed. J.-P. Beaulieu, A. Lecavelier des Etangs, & C. Terquem (San Francisco: ASP), 3
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Dawson, R. I., & Johnson, J. A. (2018) · Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1146/annurev-astro-081817-051853 · Cited by 622 · see citing works
THE FREQUENCY OF HOT JUPITERS ORBITING NEARBY SOLAR-TYPE STARS
Wright, J. T., Marcy, G. W., Howard, A. W., Johnson, J. A., Morton, T. D., & Fischer, D. A. (2012) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/753/2/160 · Cited by 371 · see citing works
Hartman, J. D., Gaudi, B. S., Holman, M. J., McLeod, B. A., Stanek, K. Z., Barranco, J. A., Pinsonneault, M. H., Meibom, S., & Kalirai, J. S. (2009) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/695/1/336 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Gaudi, B. S., Seager, S., & Mallen‐Ornelas, G.
- Affiliations
- Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian (US)
- Carnegie Institution for Science (US)
- ORCID
- Seager, S.
- Venue
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Publisher
- American Astronomical Society
- Published
- 2005-04-10
- Volume
- 623
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 472-481
- ISSN
- 0004-637X (ISSN-L)
- 1538-4357
- OpenAlex
- W2146007951
- Cited by
- 140
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 12.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- The Astrophysical Journal (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (0206278)
- Smithsonian Institution
- Carnegie Institution of Washington
- Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astro and Planetary Science
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Instrumentation › Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
- Keywords
- hot Jupiters, close-in giant planets, period distribution, transit surveys, radial velocity surveys, selection bias, short-period planets, planet migration, planet mass limits, exoplanets
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