Correlations between Planet Occurrence and Stellar Chemistry

The composition of the planet-forming environment is encoded in the surface abundances of planet-hosting stars. To understand this connection, we apply a sample of >1000 stars with Kepler planet candidates observed by the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) to measure the relationship between occurrence rates and detailed chemical abundances for 10 unique chemical elements (C, Mg, Al, Si, S, K, Ca, Mn, Fe, and Ni).

Within this sample, we find that an enhancement of ant element in our study correlates with an increase in planet occurrence. The correlation is strongest at short orbital period and large radius, but we are not able to unambiguously attribute the correlation between planet occurrence and stellar chemistry to the enhancement of any one element or combination of elements due to degeneracies caused by Galactic Chemical Evolution.