Speaker
Description
At least half the stars in the galaxy are orbited by planets smaller than Neptune and orbital periods less than a year. The demographics of these mini-Neptunes, super-Earths, and terrestrial exoplanets are constrained by transit and radial velocity surveys, often in synergy. In this talk I will give an overview of the statistical properties of these inner planets and planetary systems. I will focus on the different detection limits and biases that exist in different surveys, and show how these can be corrected for to derive the intrinsic occurrence rate of planets and planetary systems, including estimates of the frequency of earth-sized planets in the habitable zone. I will highlight some of the key trends of inner planets with host star properties, in particular the anti correlation of the sub-Neptune occurrence rate with stellar mass and the weak dependence on host star metallicity. Those trends strongly contrast with the positive correlations of outer giant planets with host star properties and thus provide constraints for planet formation models and challenge our understanding of the inner small planet -- outer giant planet relation.
