On the Carbon-to-Oxygen Ratio Measurement in Nearby Sunlike Stars: Implications for Planet Formation and the Determination of Stellar Abundances

TL;DR

This paper critically examines the high C/O ratios in nearby Sun-like stars, suggesting previous estimates are likely overestimated and that carbon-rich planets are rarer than previously thought, impacting theories of planet formation.

Contribution

The study identifies potential biases in C/O ratio measurements and provides revised estimates, challenging the idea that high C/O ratios are common in Sun-like stars.

Findings

High C/O ratios (>0.8) are present in 10-15% of stars, lower than previous estimates.

The true fraction of stars with C/O > 1.0 is about 1-5%.

Overestimation factors include stellar atmosphere models and spectral line treatments.

Abstract

Recent high resolution spectroscopic analysis of nearby FGK stars suggests that a high C/O ratio of greater than 0.8, or even 1.0, is relatively common. Two published catalogs find C/O$>0.8$ in 25-30% of systems, and C/O$>1.0$ in $\sim$~6-10%. It has been suggested that in protoplanetary disks with C/O$>0.8$ that the condensation pathways to refractory solids will differ from what occurred in our solar system, where C/O$=0.55$. The carbon-rich disks are calculated to make carbon-dominated rocky planets, rather than oxygen-dominated ones. Here we suggest that the derived stellar C/O ratios are overestimated. One constraint on the frequency of high C/O is the relative paucity of carbon dwarfs stars ($10^{-3}-10^{-5}$) found in large samples of low mass stars. We suggest reasons for this overestimation, including a high C/O ratio for the solar atmosphere model used for differential abundance analysis, the treatment of a Ni blend that affects the O abundance, and limitations of one-dimensional LTE stellar atmosphere models. Furthermore, from the estimated errors on the measured stellar C/O ratios, we find that the significance of the high C/O tail is weakened, with a true measured fraction of C/O$>0.8$ in 10-15% of stars, and C/O$>1.0$ in 1-5%, although these are still likely overestimates. We suggest that infrared T-dwarf spectra could show how common high C/O is in the stellar neighborhood, as the chemistry and spectra of such objects would differ compared to those with solar-like abundances. While possible at C/O$>0.8$, we expect that carbon-dominated rocky planets are rarer than others have suggested.