Identifying Young $Kepler$ Planet Host Stars from Keck-HIRES Spectra of Lithium

TL;DR

This study measures lithium in 1305 Kepler planet host stars to identify young stars and finds that larger planets tend to be in younger systems, supporting theories of planet inflation and photoevaporation early in planetary evolution.

Contribution

It provides a large lithium abundance catalog for Kepler stars and demonstrates a correlation between planet size and stellar age, highlighting the role of early planetary evolution processes.

Findings

80 stars identified as younger than 650 Myr based on lithium abundance

Larger planets are more common in younger systems with >3σ confidence

No correlation found between planet multiplicity, orbital period, or insolation flux and age

Abstract

The lithium doublet at 6708 \AA\ provides an age diagnostic for main sequence FGK dwarfs. We measured the abundance of lithium in 1305 stars with detected transiting planets from the Kepler Mission using high-resolution spectroscopy. Our catalog of lithium measurements from this sample have a range of abundance from A(Li) = 3.11 $\pm$ 0.07 to an upper limit of $-$0.84 dex. For a magnitude-limited sample that comprises 960 of the 1305 stars, our Keck-HIRES spectra have a median S/N = 45 per pixel at $\sim$6700 \AA\ with spectral resolution $\frac{\lambda}{\Delta \lambda}$ = $R$ = 55,000. We identify 80 young stars that have A(Li) values greater than the Hyades at their respective effective temperatures; these stars are younger than $\sim$650 Myr old, the approximate age of the Hyades. We then compare the distribution of A(Li) with planet size, multiplicity, orbital period, and insolation flux. We find larger planets preferentially in younger systems, with an A-D two-sided test p-value = 0.002, a $>3\sigma$ confidence that the older and younger planet samples do not come from the same parent distribution. This is consistent with planet inflation/photoevaporation at early ages. The other planet parameters ($Kepler$ planet multiplicity, orbital period, and insolation flux) are uncorrelated with age.