Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Recent observations have yielded the first measurements of young exoplanet demographics. Close-in sub-Neptune occurrence rates appear to rise from young (10–100 Myr) to intermediate (100 Myr–1 Gyr) ages and then decline sharply in the old (≳1 Gyr) Kepler field population. In this paper, we test whether these observations can be explained by the effects of planetary cooling, atmospheric mass loss, and tidal orbital migration, which we model through a fully coupled evolution framework. The orbital evolution is assumed to operate exclusively through high-eccentricity migration (HEM), in an effort to estimate the maximum possible contribution from this migration channel. In reality, only a subset of planetary systems are expected to undergo HEM. We find that HEM rapidly populates the close-in sub-Neptune bin, producing a sharp rise in occurrence within the first ∼15 Myr. After this early phase, the occurrence evolves only weakly. While the modeled young- to intermediate-age evolution is broadly consistent with the observed trend within the uncertainty limits, it does not support the idea of a sustained young-to-intermediate rise driven by tidal migration. It also fails to reproduce the sharp decline in occurrence seen from intermediate to old ages, motivating additional physics or formation channels to be included in future models.
Source: The Astrophysical Journal
Authors: Ritika Sethi, Sarah Millholland, Tim Hallatt
Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $4,499
OpenAlex ID: W7213608758
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