High-resolution spectroscopic atmospheric studies of 5 hot Jupiters across the edge of the Neptune desert

Abstract

Hot Jupiters (HJs), especially the Ultra-Hot Jupiters (UHJs), are ideal targets for robust atmospheric characterization, thanks to their high equilibrium temperatures and large atmospheric scale heights, which result from their proximity to their host stars and intense stellar irradiation. Here, we present atmospheric studies of five planets, namely WASP-50b, WASP-117b, WASP-156b, WASP-167b, and WASP-173Ab. These five planets include two UHJs, two classic HJs, and one hot Neptune, with four of them just on the upper and middle borders of the Neptune desert, providing an interesting sample for investigating the connection between planetary atmospheric composition and bulk properties. We have not detected any significant absorption signals exceeding 3$\sigma$ in the three less-inflated, relatively high-density HJs (WASP-50b, WASP-156b, and WASP-173Ab). We marginally detect H$\alpha$ and Li I with 3.2$\sigma$ and 3.1$\sigma$ in WASP-117b, respectively. In WASP-167b, we report tentative detection of H$\alpha$ and Fe I at 4.6$\sigma$ and $\sim3.4\sigma$, receptively. In addition, Fe I is significantly detected with a max SNR of 7.3 $\sigma$ using the cross-correlation technique, which exhibits a blue-shifted signal. For WASP-167b, we perform an atmospheric retrieval and yield the abundances of Fe, Mg, Ca, Ti, V, and equilibrium temperature of ${2479^{+193}_{-174}}$K. Comparing WASP-173Ab and WASP-167b, both are UHJ, but with quite different extents of atmospheric signals, we propose that there may be a transition in $T_{\rm eq}$ between 1900 and 2300K.