Ji-Wei Xie

Influence of Stellar Multiplicity On Planet Formation. III. Adaptive Optics Imaging of Kepler Stars With Gas Giant Planets

As hundreds of gas giant planets have been discovered, we study how these planets form and evolve in different stellar environments, specifically in multiple stellar systems. In such systems, stellar companions may have a profound influence on gas giant planet formation and evolution via several dynamical effects such as truncation and perturbation. We select 84 Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs) with gas giant planet candidates. We obtain high-angular resolution images using telescopes with adaptive optics (AO) systems. Together with the AO data, we use archival radial velocity data and dynamical analysis to constrain the presence of stellar companions. We detect 59 stellar companions around 40 KOIs for which we develop methods of testing their physical association. These methods are based on color information and galactic stellar population statistics. We find evidence of suppressive planet formation within 20 AU by comparing stellar multiplicity. The stellar multiplicity rate (MR) for planet host stars is % within 20 AU. In comparison, the stellar MR is 18% ? 2% for the control sample, i.e., field stars in the solar neighborhood. The stellar MR for planet host stars is 34% ? 8% for separations between 20 and 200 AU, which is higher than the control sample at 12% ? 2%. Beyond 200 AU, stellar MRs are comparable between planet host stars and the control sample. We discuss the implications of the results on gas giant planet formation and evolution.

PLANETESIMAL ACCRETION IN BINARY SYSTEMS: ROLE OF THE COMPANION'S ORBITAL INCLINATION

Currently, one of major problems concerning planet formation theory in close binary systems is, the strong perturbation from the companion star can increase relative velocities (

MARVELS-1b: A Short-period, Brown Dwarf Desert Candidate from the SDSS-III Marvels Planet Search

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Planetesimal Accretion in Binary Systems: The Effects of Gas Dissipation

) of planetesimals around the primary and thus hinder their growth. According to previous studies, while gas drag can reduce the

FROM DUST TO PLANETESIMAL: THE SNOWBALL PHASE ?

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ON THE UNUSUAL GAS COMPOSITION IN THE β PICTORIS DEBRIS DISK

between bodies of the same sizes by forcing orbital alignment to planetesimals, it increases the

GROUND-BASED MULTISITE OBSERVATIONS OF TWO TRANSITS OF HD 80606b

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TERRESTRIAL PLANET FORMATION AROUND THE CIRCUMBINARY HABITABLE ZONE: INWARD MIGRATION IN THE PLANETESIMAL SWARM

among bodies of different sizes. In this paper, focusing on the

Extracting Planet Mass and Eccentricity from TTV Data

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PLANETESIMAL ACCRETION IN BINARY SYSTEMS: COULD PLANETS FORM AROUND α CENTAURI B?

Cephei binary system, we propose a mechanism that can overcome this difficulty. We show that in a dissipating gas disk (with a typical dissipating timescale of