Planetary Architectures of Kepler Compact Multiplanet Systems with Binary-star Companions

Abstract Planets in binary-star systems exhibit demographic differences compared to planets in single-star systems. In particular, planets with binary-star hosts have a lower overall occurrence rate compared to their single-star counterparts, as well as a suppressed relative occurrence rate for sub-Neptunes ( R p = 2–4 R ⊕ ) compared to super-Earths ( R p = 1.0–1.5 R ⊕ ). These differences are most pronounced in close-separation binaries ( ρ < 100 au), which have been interpreted as resulting from binary stars disrupting the protoplanetary disks of their stellar companions. The architectures of planetary systems—i.e., the arrangements of planet sizes and orbits—provide additional information about system formation and evolution. While the architectures of single-star planetary systems are well studied, those of binary-star planetary systems have not been investigated in detail. In this work, we analyzed a large sample of Kepler planetary systems (162 planets in 118 binary-star systems and 880 planets in 544 single-star systems) to compare their architectures as a function of stellar multiplicity. We found that planets with binary star hosts follow a similar “peas-in-a-pod” tendency toward uniformity in planet radii and log-uniformity in period spacing as those in single-star systems. However, we also detected modest (2.5 σ –3 σ ) differences in period spacing and planet multiplicity, with binary-star systems having higher typical gap complexities (indicating more uneven spacing) and a greater prevalence of single planets. We interpret these results as evidence that binary stars primarily influence the planetary architectures of their stellar companions by shaping the protoplanetary disk during formation, with subsequent dynamical processing more gently altering the system architectures over secular timescales.