Formation of planetary populations – III. Core composition and atmospheric evaporation

ABSTRACT The exoplanet mass–radius diagram reveals that super-Earths display a wide range of radii, and therefore mean densities, at a given mass. Using planet population synthesis models, we explore the key physical factors that shape this distribution: planets’ solid core compositions, and their atmospheric structure. For the former, we use equilibrium disc chemistry models to track accreted minerals on to planetary cores throughout the formation. For the latter, we track gas accretion during the formation and consider photoevaporation-driven atmospheric mass-loss to determine what portion of accreted gas escapes after the disc phase. We find that atmospheric stripping of Neptunes and sub-Saturns at small orbital radii (≲0.1 au) plays a key role in the formation of short-period super-Earths. Core compositions are strongly influenced by the trap in which they formed. We also find a separation between Earth-like planet compositions at small orbital radii ≲0.5 au and ice-rich planets (up to 50 per cent by mass) at larger orbits ∼1 au. This corresponds well with the Earth-like mean densities inferred from the observed position of the low-mass planet radius valley at small orbital periods. Our model produces planet radii comparable to observations at masses ∼1–3 M⊕. At larger masses, planets’ accreted gas significantly increases their radii to be larger than most of the observed data. While photoevaporation, affecting planets at small orbital radii ≲0.1 au, reduces a subset of these planets’ radii and improves our comparison, most planets in our computed populations are unaffected due to low-far ultraviolet fluxes as they form at larger separations.