XO-2 Binary Star System may not Have Been Able to Form Terrestrial Exoplanets

The GAPS Programme with HARPS-N at TNG. IX. Differential abundances in the XO-2 planet hosting binary

Authors:

Biazzo et al

Abstract:

Binary stars hosting exoplanets are a unique laboratory where chemical tagging can be performed to measure with high accuracy the elemental abundances of both stellar components, with the aim to investigate the formation of planets and their subsequent evolution. Here, we present a high-precision differential abundance analysis of the XO-2 wide stellar binary based on high resolution HARPS-N@TNG spectra. Both components are very similar K-dwarfs and host planets. Since they formed presumably within the same molecular cloud, we expect they should possess the same initial elemental abundances. We investigate if the presence of planets can cause some chemical imprints in the stellar atmospheric abundances. We measure abundances of 25 elements for both stars with a range of condensation temperature TC=40−1741 K, achieving typical precisions of ∼0.07 dex. The North component shows abundances in all elements higher by +0.067±0.032 dex on average, with a mean difference of +0.078 dex for elements with TC greater than 800 K. The significance of the XO-2N abundance difference relative to XO-2S is at the 2σ level for almost all elements. We discuss the possibility that this result could be interpreted as the signature of the ingestion of material by XO-2N or depletion in XO-2S due to locking of heavy elements by the planetary companions. We estimate a mass of several tens of M⊕ in heavy elements. The difference in abundances between XO-2N and XO-2S shows a positive correlation with the condensation temperatures of the elements, with a slope of (4.7±0.9)×10−5 dex K−1, which could mean that both components have not formed terrestrial planets, but that first experienced the accretion of rocky core interior to the subsequent giant planets.

Did hot Jupiter XO-2Nb Feed 20 Earth Mass Worth of Exoplanets to its Host Star During Migration?

The dissimilar chemical composition of the planet-hosting stars of the XO-2 binary system

Authors:

Ramirez et al

Abstract:

Using high-quality spectra of the twin stars in the XO-2 binary system, we have detected significant differences in the chemical composition of their photospheres. The differences correlate strongly with the elements' dust condensation temperature. In XO-2N, volatiles are enhanced by about 0.015 dex and refractories are overabundant by up to 0.090 dex. On average, our error bar in relative abundance is 0.012 dex. We present an early metal-depletion scenario in which the formation of the gas giant planets known to exist around these stars is responsible for a 0.015 dex offset in the abundances of all elements while 20 M_Earth of non-detected rocky objects that formed around XO-2S explain the additional refractory-element difference. An alternative explanation involves the late accretion of at least 20 M_Earth of planet-like material by XO-2N, allegedly as a result of the migration of the hot Jupiter detected around that star. Dust cleansing by a nearby hot star as well as age or Galactic birthplace effects can be ruled out as valid explanations for this phenomenon.

XO-2b: a hot Jupiter With a Variable Host Star

XO-2b: a hot Jupiter with a variable host star that potentially affects its measured transit depth

Authors:

Zellem et al

Abstract:

The transiting hot Jupiter XO-2b is an ideal target for multi-object photometry and spectroscopy as it has a relatively bright (V-mag = 11.25) K0V host star (XO-2N) and a large planet-to-star contrast ratio (Rp/Rs≈0.015). It also has a nearby (31.21") binary stellar companion (XO-2S) of nearly the same brightness (V-mag = 11.20) and spectral type (G9V), allowing for the characterization and removal of shared systematic errors (e.g., airmass brightness variations). We have therefore conducted a multiyear (2012--2015) study of XO-2b with the University of Arizona's 61" (1.55~m) Kuiper Telescope and Mont4k CCD in the Bessel U and Harris B photometric passbands to measure its Rayleigh scattering slope to place upper limits on the pressure-dependent radius at, e.g., 10~bar. Such measurements are needed to constrain its derived molecular abundances from primary transit observations. We have also been monitoring XO-2N since the 2013--2014 winter season with Tennessee State University's Celestron-14 (0.36~m) automated imaging telescope to investigate stellar variability, which could affect XO-2b's transit depth. Our observations indicate that XO-2N is variable, potentially due to spots, with a peak-to-peak amplitude of 0.00455±0.00090~R-mag and period of 29.87±0.19 days. Due to the likely influence of XO-2N's variability on the derivation of XO-2b's transit depth, we cannot bin multiple nights of data to decrease our uncertainties, preventing us from constraining its gas abundances. This study demonstrates that long-term monitoring programs of exoplanet host stars are crucial for understanding host star variability.

HD 209458b & XO-2b's Ionosphere

Electron densities and alkali atoms in exoplanet atmospheres

Authors:

Lavvas et al

Abstract:

We describe a detailed study on the properties of alkali atoms in extrasolar giant planets, and specifically focus on their role in generating the atmospheric free electron densities, as well as their impact on the transit depth observations. We focus our study on the case of HD 209458 b, and we show that photoionization produces a large electron density in the middle atmosphere that is about two orders of magnitude larger than the density anticipated from thermal ionization. Our purely photochemical calculations though result in a much larger transit depth for K than observed for this planet. This result does not change even if the roles of molecular chemistry and excited state chemistry are considered for the alkali atoms. In contrast, the model results for the case of exoplanet XO-2 b are in good agreement with the available observations. Given these results we discuss other possible scenarios, such as changes in the elemental abundances, changes in the temperature profiles, and the possible presence of clouds, which could potentially explain the observed HD 209458 b alkali properties. We find that most of these scenarios can not explain the observations, with the exception of a heterogeneous source (i.e. clouds or aerosols) under specific conditions, but we also note the discrepancies among the available observations.