ASTRO In the literature: contested

Do inner super-Earths and outer cold Jupiters tend to occur together?

In plain words

Whether stars with close-in super-Earths are more or less likely to also have a Jupiter-like planet far out tells whether giant planets help or block the formation of inner small planets. Different surveys disagree.

Precise statement

Measure $P(\mathrm{CJ}\mid \mathrm{SE})$, the occurrence of cold Jupiters (M sin i ~ 0.3-13 M_Jup, a ~ 1-10 AU) around hosts of inner super-Earths ($R = 1-4\,R_{\mathrm{earth}}, P < 100\,\mathrm{d}$), versus the field rate of about 10 percent. Zhu and Wu 2018 and Bryan et al. 2019 ($39 \pm 7\,\mathrm{percent}$) report an excess of about three times, while Bonomo et al. 2023 (A&A 677, A33) find $9.3(+7.7,-2.9)\,\mathrm{percent}$ and no excess. The answer is $P(\mathrm{CJ}\mid \mathrm{SE})$ with metallicity dependence and uncertainty sufficient to decide the excess.

What would settle it

Long-baseline radial-velocity follow-up of a large, homogeneously selected sample of super-Earth hosts with metallicities matched to a control sample.

Status in the literature

Bonomo et al. 2023 found no excess, contradicting the 2018-2019 results; the difference may reflect sample metallicity or selection.

See also