Detecting giant planets orbiting low-mass stars to understand how planets form

Determining the occurrence rate of giant planets orbiting low mass stars (M<0.6Msun) is a critical test of the core-accretion theory of planet formation.  However the occurrence rate of these giant planets is poorly constrained from previous surveys. In this study we determine this occurrence rate using the hundreds of thousands of low-mass stars monitored in the TESS FFIs.

We perform an automated transit search through light curves extracted from the TESS full frame images for low-mass dwarf stars selected using TICv8 parameters.  Candidates are selected by a series of objective vetting steps that identify and reject false positive cases, particularly eclipsing binary systems and variable stars.  Injection and recovery tests are used to to determine our survey efficiency, which in turn allows us to determine the frequency of giant planets around low mass stars in a statistically robust manner.  We will present our key findings and discuss how our results impact on the understanding of how giant planets form around their host stars.