Statistics of the Chemical Composition of Solar Analog Stars and Links to Planet Formation

Understand

The Sun has been found to be depleted in refractory (rock-forming) elements relative to nearby solar analogs, suggesting a potential indicator of planet formation.

• Given the small amplitude of the depletion, previous analyses have primarily relied on high signal-to-noise stellar spectra and a strictly differential approach to determine elemental abundances.
• We present an alternative, likelihood-based approach that can be applied to much larger samples of stars with lower precision abundance determinations.
• We utilize measurements of about 1700 solar analogs from the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2) and the stellar parameter and chemical abundance pipeline (ASPCAP DR16).