Misc,
A bimodal correlation between host star chromospheric emission and the surface gravity of hot Jupiters
(Oct 15, 2015)
Abstract
The chromospheric activity index logR'HK of stars hosting transiting hot
Jupiters appears to be correlated with the planets' surface gravity. One of the
possible explanations is based on the presence of condensations of planetary
evaporated material located in a circumstellar cloud that absorbs the CaII H&K
and MgII h&k resonance line emission flux, used to measure chromospheric
activity. A larger column density in the condensations, or equivalently a
stronger absorption in the chromospheric lines, is obtained when the
evaporation rate of the planet is larger, which occurs for a lower gravity of
the planet. We analyze here a sample of stars hosting transiting hot Jupiters
tuned in order to minimize systematic effects (e.g., interstellar medium
absorption). Using a mixture model, we find that the data are best fit by a
two-linear-regression model. We interpret this result in terms of the
Vaughan-Preston gap. We use a Monte Carlo approach to best take into account
the uncertainties, finding that the two intercepts fit the observed peaks of
the distribution of logR'HK for main-sequence solar-like stars. We also find
that the intercepts are correlated with the slopes, as predicted by the model
based on the condensations of planetary evaporated material. Our findings bring
further support to this model, although we cannot firmly exclude different
explanations. A precise determination of the slopes of the two linear
components would allow one to estimate the average effective stellar flux
powering planetary evaporation, which can then be used for theoretical
population and evolution studies of close-in planets.
