C3PO – IV. Co-natal stars depleted in refractories are magnetically more active – possible imprints of planets

ABSTRACT Chemical abundance anomalies in twin stars have recently been considered tell-tale signs of interactions between stars and planets. While such signals are prevalent, their nature remains a subject of debate. On the one hand, exoplanet formation may induce chemical depletion in host stars by locking up refractory elements. On the other hand, exoplanet engulfment can result in chemical enrichment, and both processes potentially produce similar differential signals. In this study, we aim to observationally disentangle these processes by using the Ca ii infrared triplet to measure the magnetic activity of 125 co-moving star pairs with high signal-to-noise ratio, and high-resolution spectra from the Magellan, Keck, and VLT (Very Large Telescope) telescopes. We find that co-natal star pairs in which the two stars exhibit significant chemical abundance differences also show differences in their magnetic activity, with stars depleted in refractories being magnetically more active. Furthermore, the strength of this correlation between differential chemical abundances and differential magnetic activity increases with condensation temperature. One possible explanation is that the chemical anomaly signature may be linked to planet formation, wherein refractory elements are locked into planets, and the host stars become more active due to more efficient contraction during the pre-main-sequence phase or star–planet tidal and magnetic interactions.

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Publication Details

Journal
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Published
2025-03-17
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf436
Citations
3
Primary Topic
Astro and Planetary Science
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
3.46
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article

C3PO – IV. Co-natal stars depleted in refractories are magnetically more active – possible imprints of planets

Melissa Ness, Qinghui Sun, S. Khanna, Boquan Chen et al.
3 citations
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Astro and Planetary Science
3.46
article

C3PO – IV. Co-natal stars depleted in refractories are magnetically more active – possible imprints of planets

Melissa Ness, Qinghui Sun, S. Khanna, Boquan Chen, Chelsea X. Huang, Sharon X. Wang, G. Cordoni, L. Casagrande, Amanda I. Karakas, Thomas Nordlander, Yuan-Sen Ting, Daniel Huber, Junhui Liu, Fan Liu, Jie Yu, John Taylor
article en
3 citations

Abstract

ABSTRACT Chemical abundance anomalies in twin stars have recently been considered tell-tale signs of interactions between stars and planets. While such signals are prevalent, their nature remains a subject of debate. On the one hand, exoplanet formation may induce chemical depletion in host stars by locking up refractory elements. On the other hand, exoplanet engulfment can result in chemical enrichment, and both processes potentially produce similar differential signals. In this study, we aim to observationally disentangle these processes by using the Ca ii infrared triplet to measure the magnetic activity of 125 co-moving star pairs with high signal-to-noise ratio, and high-resolution spectra from the Magellan, Keck, and VLT (Very Large Telescope) telescopes. We find that co-natal star pairs in which the two stars exhibit significant chemical abundance differences also show differences in their magnetic activity, with stars depleted in refractories being magnetically more active. Furthermore, the strength of this correlation between differential chemical abundances and differential magnetic activity increases with condensation temperature. One possible explanation is that the chemical anomaly signature may be linked to planet formation, wherein refractory elements are locked into planets, and the host stars become more active due to more efficient contraction during the pre-main-sequence phase or star–planet tidal and magnetic interactions.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical SocietyVol. 538(4)
Australian National University (AU), Uppsala University (SE), The University of Sydney (AU), University of Hawaii System (US), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (CN), University of Southern Queensland (AU), Xiamen University (CN), Mount Stromlo Observatory (AU), ASTRO-3D (AU), Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino (IT), Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (DE), Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté (FR), Astronomy and Space (AU), Flatiron Health (United States) (US), ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (AU), Flatiron Institute (US), The Ohio State University (US), Monash University (AU), Columbia University (US), Tsinghua University (CN)
Openalex Percentile: Top 9%
Astro and Planetary Science
3.46
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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