About 30% of Sun-like Stars Have Kepler-like Planetary Systems: A Study of their Intrinsic Architecture

TL;DR

This study estimates that about 30% of Sun-like stars host Kepler-like planetary systems with roughly three planets on average, revealing a correlation between system multiplicity and orbital inclination dispersion, and challenging previous higher estimates.

Contribution

It provides a robust estimate of the fraction of Sun-like stars with Kepler-like planets and models the inclination dispersion as a function of system multiplicity, refining our understanding of planetary system architectures.

Findings

Approximately 30% of Sun-like stars have Kepler-like planets.

Average planetary system within 400 days has about 3 planets.

Inclination dispersion increases steeply with the number of planets.

Abstract

We constrain the intrinsic architecture of Kepler planetary systems by modeling the observed multiplicities of the transiting planets (tranets) and their transit timing variations (TTVs). We robustly determine that the fraction of Sun-like stars with Kepler-like planets, $\eta_{\rm Kepler}$, is $30\pm3\%$. Here Kepler-like planets are planets that have radii $R_{\rm p} \gtrsim R_\oplus$ and orbital periods $P<400$~days. Our result thus significantly revises previous claims that more than 50\% of Sun-like stars have such planets. Combining with the average number of Kepler planets per star ($\sim0.9$), we obtain that on average each planetary system has $3.0\pm0.3$ planets within 400 days. We also find that the dispersion in orbital inclinations of planets within a given planetary system, $\sigma_{i,k}$, is a steep function of its number of planets, $k$. This can be parameterized as $\sigma_{i,k}\propto k^\alpha$ and we find that $-4<\alpha<-2$ at 2-$\sigma$ level. Such a distribution well describes the observed multiplicities of both tranets and TTVs with no excess of single tranets. Therefore we do not find evidence supporting the so-called "Kepler dichotomy." Together with a previous study on orbital eccentricities, we now have a consistent picture: the fewer planets in a system, the hotter it is dynamically. We discuss briefly possible scenarios that lead to such a trend. Despite our Solar system not belonging to the Kepler club, it is interesting to notice that the Solar system also has three planets within 400 days and that the inclination dispersion is similar to Kepler systems of the same multiplicity.