Generalized Peas in a Pod: Extending Intra-system Mass Uniformity to Non-TTV Systems via the Gini Index

It has been demonstrated that planets belonging to the same close-in, compact multiple-planet system tend to exhibit a striking degree of uniformity in their sizes. A similar trend has also been found to hold for the masses of such planets, but considerations of such intra-system mass uniformity have generally been limited to statistical samples wherein a majority of systems have constituent planetary mass measurements obtained via analysis of transit timing variations (TTVs). Since systems with strong TTV signals typically lie in or near mean motion resonance, it remains to be seen whether intra-system mass uniformity is still readily emergent for nonresonant systems with non-TTV mass provenance. We thus present in this work a mass uniformity analysis of 17 non-TTV systems with masses measured via radial velocity measurements. Using the Gini index, a common statistic for economic inequality, as our primary metric for uniformity, we find that our sample of 17 non-TTV systems displays intra-system mass uniformity at a level of similar to 2.5 sigma confidence. We provide additional discussion of possible statistical and astrophysical underpinnings for this result. We also demonstrate the existence of a correlation (r = 0.25) between characteristic solid surface density (sigma(0)) of the minimum-mass extrasolar nebula and system mass Gini index, suggesting that more-massive disks may generally form systems with more-unequal planetary masses.

Automated summary

It has been found that planets in the same close-in, compact multiple-planet system tend to have uniform sizes, and a similar trend is seen for their masses. This study examines the intra-system mass uniformity of 17 non-transit timing variation (TTV) systems. The results show that these systems display a level of intra-system mass uniformity at a 2.5 sigma confidence level. Additionally, a correlation is found between the characteristic solid surface density of the minimum-mass extrasolar nebula and the system mass Gini index.