Modeling Exoplanet Demographics Across Detection Methods

Abstract

Exoplanet demographics leverages large-scale survey data to give us population-level in- sight to questions of planet formation, evolution, and habitability. Few exoplanet surveys to date have enabled more demographic studies than the Kepler mission, which leveraged the transit method of exoplanet detection to deliver thousands of confirmed and candidate planets. But despite this revolutionary insight, a paucity of reliable detections of Earth-like planets makes measuring their frequency – a key parameter in the search for life – extremely difficult. In this work, we present several studies leveraging the Kepler sample and recent innovations therein to provide some of the most up-to-date, comprehensive estimates for the frequency of Earth-like planets and its dependence on stellar mass. Additionally, we move beyond single-survey studies and supplement the limitations of Kepler by developing a new technique to constrain occurrence rates using data from multiple surveys. We then use this technique to constrain the occurrence distribution of giant planets as the first work to combine transit, radial velocity, and direct imaging surveys. Across all these studies, we comment on the potential for demographics to support current and future surveys as the community continues searching for life beyond our solar system.