Peas-in-a-Pod Across the Radius Valley: Rocky Systems are Less Uniform in Mass but More Uniform in Size and Spacing (2405.14091v1)

Abstract: The ubiquity of "peas-in-a-pod" architectural patterns and the existence of the radius valley each present a striking population-level trend for planets with $R_{p} \leq 4 R_{\oplus}$ that serves to place powerful constraints on the formation and evolution of these subgiant worlds. As it has yet to be determined whether the strength of this peas-in-a-pod uniformity differs on either side of the radius valley, we separately assess the architectures of systems containing only small ($R_{p} \leq 1.6 R_{\oplus}$), rocky planets from those harboring only intermediate-size ($1.6 R_{\oplus} < R_{p} \leq 4 R_{\oplus}$), volatile-rich worlds to perform a novel statistical comparison of intra-system planetary uniformity across compositionally distinct regimes. We find that, compared to their volatile-rich counterparts, rocky systems are less uniform in mass ($2.6\sigma$), but more uniform in size ($4.0\sigma$) and spacing ($3.0\sigma$). We provide further statistical validation for these results, demonstrating that they are not substantially influenced by the presence of mean motion resonances, low-mass host stars, alternative bulk compositional assumptions, sample size effects, or detection biases. We also obtain tentative evidence ($>2 \sigma$ significance) that the enhanced size uniformity of rocky systems is dominated by the presence of super-Earths ($1 R_{\oplus} \leq R_{p} \leq 1.6 R_{\oplus}$), while their enhanced mass diversity is driven by the presence of sub-Earth ($R_{p} < 1 R_{\oplus}$) worlds.