Chemical Abundances of Neutron-capture Elements in Exoplanet-hosting Stars

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2018

Authors

Delgado Mena, ED (Author) FCUP; Adibekyan, VZ (Author) Other; Figueira, P (Author) Other; Gonzalez Hernandez, JIG (Author) Other; N.C. Santos (Author) FCUP; Tsantaki, M (Author) Other; Sousa, SG (Author) FCUP; Faria, JP (Author) Other; Suarez Andres, L (Author) Other; Israehan, G (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific

Vol. 130

ISSN: 0004-6280

Publisher: Institute of Physics Publishing

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 8 Citations

Scopus - 9 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00P-2C8

DOI: 10.1088/1538-3873/aacc1f

Abstract (EN): To understand the formation and composition of planetary systems it is important to study their host stars composition since both are formed in the same stellar nebula. In this work, we analyze the behaviour of chemical abundances of Cu, Zn, Sr, Y, Zr, Ba, Ce, Nd, and Eu in the large and homogeneous HARPS-GTO planet search sample (R similar to 115000). This sample is composed of 120 stars hosting high-mass planets, 29 stars hosting exclusively Neptunians and Super-Earths and 910 stars without detected giant planets. We compare the [X/Fe] ratios of such elements in different metallicity bins and we find that planet hosts present higher abundances of Zn for [Fe/H] < -0.1 dex. On the other hand, Ba, Sr, Ce, and Zr abundances are underabundant in stars with planets, with a bigger difference for stars only hosting low-mass planets. However, most of the offsets found can be explained by differences in stellar parameters and by the fact that planet hosts at low metallicity mostly belong to the Galactic thick disk. Only in the case of Ba we find a statistically significant (3 sigma) underabundance of 0.03 dex for low-mass planet hosts. The origin of these elements is quite complex due to their evolution during the history of the Galaxy. Therefore, it is necessary to understand and characterize the stellar populations to which planet hosts belong in order to do a fair comparison with stars without detected planets. This work demonstrates that the effects of Galactic chemical evolution and not the presence of planets mostly account for the differences we find.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 14