Spectroscopic [Fe/H] for 98 extra-solar planet-host stars: Exploring the probability of planet formation

TL;DR

This study provides detailed spectroscopic metallicities for 98 planet-hosting stars and 41 non-host stars, confirming that higher stellar metallicity significantly increases the likelihood of planet formation, supporting core accretion theories.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive spectroscopic analysis of a large sample of stars, including new parameters for 18 previously unstudied planet-hosts, and refines the correlation between stellar metallicity and planet occurrence.

Findings

Planet occurrence increases with stellar metallicity, especially above [Fe/H]>0.

Only 3% of stars with solar metallicity host planets, rising to over 25% for [Fe/H]>+0.3.

The probability of hosting planets may plateau below solar metallicity and increase linearly with heavy element fraction.

Abstract

We present stellar parameters and metallicities, obtained from a detailed spectroscopic analysis, for a large sample of 98 stars known to be orbited by planetary mass companions (almost all known targets), as well as for a volume-limited sample of 41 stars not known to host any planet. For most of the stars the stellar parameters are revised versions of the ones presented in our previous works. However, we also present parameters for 18 stars with planets not previously published, and a compilation of stellar parameters for the remaining 4 planet-hosts for which we could not obtain a spectrum. A comparison of our stellar parameters with values of Teff, log(g), and [Fe/H] available in the literature shows a remarkable agreement. The derived [Fe/H] values are then used to confirm the previously known result that planets are more prevalent around metal-rich stars. Furthermore, we confirm that the frequency of planets is a strongly rising function of the stellar metallicity, at least for stars with [Fe/H]>0. While only about 3% of the solar metallicity stars in the CORALIE planet search sample were found to be orbited by a planet, this number increases to more than 25% for stars with [Fe/H] above +0.3. Curiously, our results also suggest that these percentages might remain relatively constant for values of [Fe/H] lower than about solar, increasing then linearly with the mass fraction of heavy elements. These results are discussed in the context of the theories of planetary formation.