TY - JOUR

T1 - The metallicities of stars with and without transiting planets

AU - Buchhave, Lars A.

AU - Latham, David W.

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - Host star metallicities have been used to infer observational constraints on planet formation throughout the history of the exoplanet field. The giant planet metallicity correlation has now been widely accepted, but questions remain as to whether the metallicity correlation extends to the small terrestrial-sized planets. Here, we report metallicities for a sample of 518 stars in the Kepler field that have no detected transiting planets and compare their metallicity distribution to a sample of stars that hosts small planets (). Importantly, both samples have been analyzed in a homogeneous manner using the same set of tools (Stellar Parameters Classification tool). We find the average metallicity of the sample of stars without detected transiting planets to be and the sample of stars hosting small planets to be . The average metallicities of the two samples are indistinguishable within the uncertainties, and the two-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test yields a p-value of 0.68 (0.41σ), indicating a failure to reject the null hypothesis that the two samples are drawn from the same parent population. We conclude that the homogeneous analysis of the data presented here supports the hypothesis that stars hosting small planets have a metallicity similar to stars with no known transiting planets in the same area of the sky.

AB - Host star metallicities have been used to infer observational constraints on planet formation throughout the history of the exoplanet field. The giant planet metallicity correlation has now been widely accepted, but questions remain as to whether the metallicity correlation extends to the small terrestrial-sized planets. Here, we report metallicities for a sample of 518 stars in the Kepler field that have no detected transiting planets and compare their metallicity distribution to a sample of stars that hosts small planets (). Importantly, both samples have been analyzed in a homogeneous manner using the same set of tools (Stellar Parameters Classification tool). We find the average metallicity of the sample of stars without detected transiting planets to be and the sample of stars hosting small planets to be . The average metallicities of the two samples are indistinguishable within the uncertainties, and the two-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test yields a p-value of 0.68 (0.41σ), indicating a failure to reject the null hypothesis that the two samples are drawn from the same parent population. We conclude that the homogeneous analysis of the data presented here supports the hypothesis that stars hosting small planets have a metallicity similar to stars with no known transiting planets in the same area of the sky.

KW - planetary systems

KW - surveys

KW - techniques: spectroscopic

U2 - 10.1088/0004-637X/808/2/187

DO - 10.1088/0004-637X/808/2/187

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:84942162813

VL - 808

JO - Astrophysical Journal

JF - Astrophysical Journal

SN - 0004-637X

IS - 2

M1 - 187

ER -