M Dwarf Metallicities and Giant Planet Occurrence: Ironing Out Uncertainties and Systematics

Understand

Comparisons between the planet populations around solar-type stars and those orbiting M dwarfs shed light on the possible dependence of planet formation and evolution on stellar mass.

• However, such analyses must control for other factors, i.e.
• metallicity, a stellar parameter which strongly influences the occurrence of gas giant planets.
• We obtained infrared spectra of 121 M dwarfs stars monitored by the California Planet Search (CPS) and determined metallicities with an accuracy of 0.08 dex.