Signatures of impact-driven atmospheric loss in large ensembles of exoplanets

TL;DR

This paper compares impact-driven and photoevaporative atmospheric loss mechanisms in exoplanets using N-body simulations, proposing new observational diagnostics to identify the dominant loss process.

Contribution

It introduces a comparative analysis of impact-driven versus photoevaporative atmospheric loss, highlighting new observational pathways using transit multiplicity diagnostics.

Findings

Impact-driven impacts produce distinct planetary distributions.

Transit multiplicity can distinguish loss mechanisms.

Follow-up surveys can identify dominant atmospheric loss processes.

Abstract

The results of large-scale exoplanet transit surveys indicate that the distribution of small planet radii is likely sculpted by atmospheric loss. Several possible physical mechanisms exist for this loss of primordial atmospheres, each of which produces a different set of observational signatures. In this study, we investigate the impact-driven mode of atmosphere loss via N-body simulations. We compare the results from giant impacts, at a demographic level, to results from another commonly-invoked method of atmosphere loss: photoevaporation. Applying two different loss prescriptions to the same sets of planets, we then examine the resulting distributions of planets with retained primordial atmospheres. As a result of this comparison, we identify two new pathways toward discerning the dominant atmospheric loss mechanism at work. Both of these pathways involve using transit multiplicity as a diagnostic, in examining the results of follow-up atmospheric and radial velocity surveys.