The Discovery and Follow-up of Four Transiting Short-period Sub-Neptunes Orbiting M Dwarfs
Abstract
Sub-Neptunes with radii of 2–3 R _⊕ are intermediate in size between rocky planets and Neptune-sized planets. The orbital properties and bulk compositions of transiting sub-Neptunes provide clues to the formation and evolution of close-in small planets. In this paper, we present the discovery and follow-up of four sub-Neptunes orbiting M dwarfs (TOI-782, TOI-1448, TOI-2120, and TOI-2406), three of which were newly validated by ground-based follow-up observations and statistical analyses. TOI-782 b, TOI-1448 b, TOI-2120 b, and TOI-2406 b have radii of ${R}_{{\rm{p}}}={2.740}_{-0.079}^{+0.082}\,{R}_{\oplus }$ , ${2.769}_{-0.068}^{+0.073}\,{R}_{\oplus }$ , 2.120 ± 0.067 R _⊕ , and ${2.830}_{-0.066}^{+0.068}\,{R}_{\oplus }$ and orbital periods of P = 8.02, 8.11, 5.80, and 3.08 days, respectively. Doppler monitoring with the Subaru/InfraRed Doppler instrument led to 2 σ upper limits on the masses of <19.1 M _⊕ , <19.5 M _⊕ , <6.8 M _⊕ , and <15.6 M _⊕ for TOI-782 b, TOI-1448 b, TOI-2120 b, and TOI-2406 b, respectively. The mass–radius relationship of these four sub-Neptunes testifies to the existence of volatile material in their interiors. These four sub-Neptunes, which are located above the so-called “radius valley,” are likely to retain a significant atmosphere and/or an icy mantle on the core, such as a water world. We find that at least three of the four sub-Neptunes (TOI-782 b, TOI-2120 b, and TOI-2406 b), orbiting M dwarfs older than 1 Gyr, are likely to have eccentricities of e ∼ 0.2–0.3. The fact that tidal circularization of their orbits is not achieved over 1 Gyr suggests inefficient tidal dissipation in their interiors.
Date
01-01-2024Author
Yasunori Hori
Akihiko Fukui
Teruyuki Hirano
Norio Narita
Jerome P. de Leon
Hiroyuki Tako Ishikawa
Joel D. Hartman
Giuseppe Morello
Nestor Abreu García
Leticia Álvarez Hernández
Víctor J. S. Béjar
Yéssica Calatayud-Borras
Ilaria Carleo
Gareb Enoc
Emma Esparza-Borges
Izuru Fukuda
Daniel Galán
Samuel Geraldía-González
Yuya Hayashi
Masahiro Ikoma
Kai Ikuta
Keisuke Isogai
Taiki Kagetani
Yugo Kawai
Kiyoe Kawauchi
Tadahiro Kimura
Takanori Kodama
Judith Korth
Nobuhiko Kusakabe
Andrés Laza-Ramos
John H. Livingston
Rafael Luque
Kohei Miyakawa
Mayuko Mori
Felipe Murgas
Jaume Orell-Miquel
Enric Palle
Hannu Parviainen
Alberto Peláez-Torres
Marta Puig-Subirà
Manuel Sánchez-Benavente
Paula Sosa-Guillén
Monika Stangret
Yuka Terada
Sara Muñoz Torres
Noriharu Watanabe
Gaspar Á. Bakos
Khalid Barkaoui
Charles Beichman
Zouhair Benkhaldoun
Andrew W. Boyle
David R. Ciardi
Catherine A. Clark
Karen A. Collins
Kevin I. Collins
Dennis M. Conti
Ian J.M. Crossfield
Mark E. Everett
Elise Furlan
Mourad Ghachoui
Michaël Gillon
Erica J. Gonzales
Jesus Higuera
Keith Horne
Steve B. Howell
Emmanuël Jehin
Kathryn V. Lester
Michael B. Lund
Rachel Matson
Elisabeth C. Matthews
Francisco J. Pozuelos
Boris S. Safonov
Joshua E. Schlieder
Richard P. Schwarz
Ramotholo Sefako
Gregor Srdoc
Ivan A. Strakhov
Mathilde Timmermans
William C. Waalkes
Carl Ziegler
David Charbonneau
Zahra Essack
Natalia M. Guerrero
Hiroki Harakawa
Christina Hedges
Masato Ishizuka
Jon M. Jenkins
Mihoko Konishi
Takayuki Kotani
Tomoyuki Kudo
Takashi Kurokawa
Masayuki Kuzuhara
Jun Nishikawa
Masashi Omiya
George R. Ricker
Sara Seager
Takuma Serizawa
Stephanie Striegel
Motohide Tamura
Akitoshi Ueda
Roland Vanderspek
Sébastien Vievard
Joshua N. Winn