Evidence for chromium hydride in the atmosphere of Hot Jupiter WASP-31b

TL;DR

This study presents the first evidence of chromium hydride in the atmosphere of the hot Jupiter WASP-31b, using transmission spectroscopy and Bayesian retrieval methods, indicating the presence of exotic metallic compounds in exoplanet atmospheres.

Contribution

It is the first to detect chromium hydride in a hot Jupiter atmosphere, expanding knowledge of atmospheric composition and chemical processes in exoplanets.

Findings

Evidence for CrH, H2O, and K in WASP-31b's atmosphere.

CrH detection with ~3.9 sigma significance.

Atmospheric temperature around 1481 K consistent with gaseous Cr-bearing species.

Abstract

Context. The characterisation of exoplanet atmospheres has shown a wide diversity in compositions. Hot Jupiters have the appropriate temperatures to host metallic compounds, which should be detectable through transmission spectroscopy. Aims. We aim to detect exotic species in transmission spectra of hot Jupiters, specifically WASP-31b, by testing a variety of chemical species to explain the spectrum. Methods. We conduct a re-analysis of publicly available transmission data of WASP-31b using the Bayesian retrieval framework TauREx II. We retrieve various combinations of the opacities of 25 species to determine the minimum set needed to fit the observed spectrum. Results. We report evidence for the spectroscopic signatures of chromium hydride (CrH), H2O and K in WASP-31b. Compared to a flat model without any signatures, a CrH-only model is preferred with a statistical significance of ~3.9 sigma. A model consisting of both CrH+H2O is found with ~2.6 sigma and ~3 sigma confidence over a CrH-only and H2O-only model respectively. Weak evidence for the addition of K is found at ~2.2 sigma over the H2O+CrH model, although the fidelity of the data point associated with this signature was questioned in earlier studies. Finally, the inclusion of collision-induced absorption and a Rayleigh scattering slope is found with ~3.5 sigma confidence over a flat model. This analysis presents the first evidence for signatures of CrH in a hot Jupiter atmosphere. At a retrieved temperature of ~1481 K, the atmosphere of WASP-31b is hot enough to host gaseous Cr-bearing species. The retrieved abundances agree well with predictions from thermal equilibrium chemistry and with the abundance found in an L-type brown dwarf atmosphere. However, additional retrievals using VLT FORS2 data lead to a non-detection of CrH. Future coverage with JWST has the potential to confirm the detection and discover other CrH features.