Upper limits on atmospheric abundances of KELT-11b and WASP-69b from a retrieval approach

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Main Authors: Lesjak, F., Nortmann, L., Cont, D., Amado, P. J., Azzaro, M., Caballero, J. A., Czesla, S., Hatzes, A., Henning, Th., López-Puertas, M., Molaverdikhani, K., Montes, D., Orell-Miquel, J., Pallé, E., Peláez-Torres, A., Quirrenbach, A., Reiners, A., Ribas, I., Sánchez-López, A., Schweitzer, A., Yan, F.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Lesjak, F.
Nortmann, L.
Cont, D.
Amado, P. J.
Azzaro, M.
Caballero, J. A.
Czesla, S.
Hatzes, A.
Henning, Th.
López-Puertas, M.
Molaverdikhani, K.
Montes, D.
Orell-Miquel, J.
Pallé, E.
Peláez-Torres, A.
Quirrenbach, A.
Reiners, A.
Ribas, I.
Sánchez-López, A.
Schweitzer, A.
Yan, F.
author_facet Lesjak, F.
Nortmann, L.
Cont, D.
Amado, P. J.
Azzaro, M.
Caballero, J. A.
Czesla, S.
Hatzes, A.
Henning, Th.
López-Puertas, M.
Molaverdikhani, K.
Montes, D.
Orell-Miquel, J.
Pallé, E.
Peláez-Torres, A.
Quirrenbach, A.
Reiners, A.
Ribas, I.
Sánchez-López, A.
Schweitzer, A.
Yan, F.
contents WASP-69b and KELT-11b are two low-density hot Jupiters, which are expected to show strong atmospheric features in their transmission spectra. Such features offer valuable insights into the chemical composition, thermal structure, and cloud properties of exoplanet atmospheres. High-resolution spectroscopic observations can be used to study the line-forming regions in exoplanet atmospheres and potentially detect signals despite the presence of clouds. We aimed to detect various molecular species and constrain the chemical abundances and cloud deck pressures using high-resolution spectroscopy. We observed multiple transits of these planets with CARMENES and applied the cross-correlation method to detect atmospheric signatures. Further, we used an injection-recovery approach and retrievals to place constraints on the atmospheric properties. We detected a tentative H$_2$O signal for KELT-11b but not for WASP-69b, and searches for other molecules such as H$_2$S and CH$_4$ resulted in non-detections for both planets. By investigating the signal strength of injected synthetic models, we constrained which atmospheric abundances and cloud deck pressures are consistent with our cross-correlation results. In addition, we show that a retrieval-based approach leads to similar constraints of these parameters.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_05154
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Upper limits on atmospheric abundances of KELT-11b and WASP-69b from a retrieval approach
Lesjak, F.
Nortmann, L.
Cont, D.
Amado, P. J.
Azzaro, M.
Caballero, J. A.
Czesla, S.
Hatzes, A.
Henning, Th.
López-Puertas, M.
Molaverdikhani, K.
Montes, D.
Orell-Miquel, J.
Pallé, E.
Peláez-Torres, A.
Quirrenbach, A.
Reiners, A.
Ribas, I.
Sánchez-López, A.
Schweitzer, A.
Yan, F.
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
WASP-69b and KELT-11b are two low-density hot Jupiters, which are expected to show strong atmospheric features in their transmission spectra. Such features offer valuable insights into the chemical composition, thermal structure, and cloud properties of exoplanet atmospheres. High-resolution spectroscopic observations can be used to study the line-forming regions in exoplanet atmospheres and potentially detect signals despite the presence of clouds. We aimed to detect various molecular species and constrain the chemical abundances and cloud deck pressures using high-resolution spectroscopy. We observed multiple transits of these planets with CARMENES and applied the cross-correlation method to detect atmospheric signatures. Further, we used an injection-recovery approach and retrievals to place constraints on the atmospheric properties. We detected a tentative H$_2$O signal for KELT-11b but not for WASP-69b, and searches for other molecules such as H$_2$S and CH$_4$ resulted in non-detections for both planets. By investigating the signal strength of injected synthetic models, we constrained which atmospheric abundances and cloud deck pressures are consistent with our cross-correlation results. In addition, we show that a retrieval-based approach leads to similar constraints of these parameters.
title Upper limits on atmospheric abundances of KELT-11b and WASP-69b from a retrieval approach
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.05154