Federico Benitez - January 27, 2017

The effect of temperature and composition on the mass-radius relation for
super-Earth and Neptune like exoplanets

Most known exoplanets are known to have super-Earth to Neptune-like sizes. These
classes of planets are expected to be significantly enriched in heavy materials,
but most numerical models up to now have considered simple planet structure with
H-He atmospheres. Using a recently developed water EOS, we solve structure
equation for intermediate-mass exoplanets having different levels of atmospheric
enrichment, and checked the effect this can have on the observable Mass-Radius
relationship. We compare this with the effect of changing the temperature at the
boundary of the planet and its internal Entropy. This study provides a stepping
stone to a more accurate characterization of exoplanets, with the aim of
achieving a level of accuracy similar to that expected from future space
missions such as CHEOPS and PLATO.