Exoplanet detection and its dependence on stochastic sampling of the stellar Initial Mass Function

Abstract

Young Moving Groups (YMGs) are close (<100pc), coherent collections of young (<100Myr) stars that appear to have formed in the same star-forming molecular cloud. As such we would expect their individual initial mass functions (IMFs) to be similar to other star-forming regions, and by extension the Galactic field. Their close proximity to the Sun and their young ages means that YMGs are promising locations to search for young forming exoplanets. However, due to their low numbers of stars, stochastic sampling of the IMF means their stellar populations could vary significantly. We determine the range of planet-hosting stars (spectral types A, G and M) possible from sampling the IMF multiple times, and find that some YMGs appear deficient in M-dwarfs. We then use these data to show that the expected probability of detecting terrestrial magma ocean planets is highly dependent on the exact numbers of stars produced through stochastic sampling of the IMF.

11 pages (7 pages of main text), 2 figures (+ 3 in appendix), 3 tables. ApJ in press

References in corpus (5)

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• Do O-stars form in isolation?
• LACEwING: A New Moving Group Analysis Code
• Dynamics versus structure: breaking the density degeneracy in star formation
• Jet Kinematics of the Quasar 4C +21.35 from Observations with the KaVA Very Long Baseline Interferometry Array