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Journal Club



20.11.2023

"Density, not radius, separates rocky and water-rich small planets orbiting M dwarf stars"

Gonzalo Ignacio Rojas García (NCAC, Warsaw)

Exoplanets smaller than Neptune are common around red dwarf stars (M dwarfs), with those that transit their host star constituting the bulk of known temperate worlds amenable for atmospheric characterization. We analyze the masses and radii of all known small transiting planets around M dwarfs, identifying three populations: rocky, water-rich, and gas-rich. Our results are inconsistent with the previously known bimodal radius distribution arising from atmospheric loss of a hydrogen/helium envelope. Instead, we propose that a density gap separates rocky from water-rich exoplanets. Formation models that include orbital migration can explain the observations: Rocky planets form within the snow line, whereas water-rich worlds form outside it and later migrate inward.

Luque, R., & Pallé, E. (2022) https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abl7164


27.11.2023

""Recent works published by CAMK employees""

Special session (NCAC, Warsaw)

1. Andrzej Zdziarski
"What are the spins of stellar-mass black holes?"
based on the papers:

"Black hole spin measurements in LMC X-1 and Cyg X-1 are highly
model-dependent"
by Zdiarski et al.:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.06167
and
"Common origin of black holes in high mass X-ray binaries and in
gravitation-wave sources"
by Belczynski et a.:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.09401

2. Michał Bejger
"Astrophysics with continuous gravitational waves"
by Haskell & Bejger:
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2023NatAs...7.1160H/abstract