Constraining atmospheric composition from the outflow: helium observations reveal the fundamental properties of two planets straddling the radius gap

TL;DR

This study uses helium observations to differentiate atmospheric retention in two exoplanets, revealing that one retains primordial atmosphere while the other has lost it, and highlights helium triplet as a metallicity probe.

Contribution

It demonstrates the use of helium triplet absorption to constrain atmospheric metallicity and composition in mini-Neptunes, with implications for understanding atmospheric evolution.

Findings

Planet c retains some primordial atmosphere, while planet b has lost its envelope.

Helium absorption strength is highly sensitive to atmospheric metallicity.

Helium triplet can serve as a powerful metallicity probe despite model uncertainties.

Abstract

TOI-836 is a ~2-3 Gyr K dwarf with an inner super Earth ($R=1.7 R_\oplus$, $P=3.8$ d) and an outer mini Neptune ($R=2.6 R_\oplus$, $P=8.6$ d). JWST/NIRSpec 2.8--5.2 $\mu$m transmission spectra are flat for both planets. We present Keck/NIRSPEC observations of escaping helium for super-Earth b, which shows no excess absorption in the 1083 nm triplet to deep limits (<0.2%), and mini-Neptune c, which shows strong (0.7%) excess absorption in both visits. These results demonstrate that planet c retains at least some primordial atmosphere, while planet b is consistent with having lost its entire primordial envelope. Self-consistent 1D radiative-hydrodynamic models of planet c reveal that the helium excess absorption signal is highly sensitive to metallicity: its equivalent width collapses by a factor of 13 as metallicity increases from 10x to 100x solar, and by a further factor of 12 as it increases to 200x solar. The observed equivalent width is 88% the model prediction for 100x metallicity, suggesting an atmospheric metallicity similar to K2-18b and TOI-270d, the first two mini-Neptunes with detected absorption features in JWST transmission spectra. We highlight the helium triplet as a potentially powerful probe of atmospheric composition, with complementary strengths and weaknesses to atmospheric retrievals. The main strength is its extreme sensitivity to metallicity in the scientifically significant range of 10--200x solar, and the main weakness is the enormous model uncertainties in outflow suppression and confinement mechanisms, such as magnetic fields and stellar winds, which can suppress the signal by at least a factor of ~several.