How Much Information Does the Sodium Doublet Encode? Retrieval Analysis of Non-LTE Sodium Lines at Low and High Spectral Resolutions

Fisher, Chloe; Heng, Kevin (2019). How Much Information Does the Sodium Doublet Encode? Retrieval Analysis of Non-LTE Sodium Lines at Low and High Spectral Resolutions. Astrophysical journal, 881(1), p. 25. Institute of Physics Publishing IOP 10.3847/1538-4357/ab29e8

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Motivated by both ground- and space-based detections of the sodium doublet in the transmission spectra of exoplanetary atmospheres, we revisit the theory and interpretation of sodium lines in non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE), where collisions are not efficient enough to maintain a Boltzmann distribution for the excited and ground states of the sodium atom. We consider non-Boltzmann distributions that account for the ineffectiveness of collisions. We analyze the sodium doublet in transmission spectra measured at low (HAT-P-1b, HAT-P-12b, HD 189733b, WASP-6b, WASP-17b and WASP-39b) and high (WASP-49b) spectral resolutions. Nested-sampling retrievals performed on low-resolution optical/visible transmission spectra are unable to break the normalization degeneracy if the spectral continuum is associated with Rayleigh scattering by small cloud particles. Using mock retrievals, we demonstrate that un-normalized ground-based, high-resolution spectra centered on the sodium doublet alone are unable to precisely inform us about the pressure levels probed by the transit chord and hence to identify the region (i.e., thermosphere, exosphere) of the atmosphere being probed. Retrievals performed on the HARPS transmission spectrum of WASP-49b support this conclusion. Generally, we are unable to distinguish between LTE versus NLTE interpretations of the sodium doublet based on the computed Bayesian evidence with the implication that LTE interpretations tend to under-estimate the temperature probed by the transit chord. With the current low-resolution data, the sodium line shapes are consistent with Voigt profiles without the need for sub-Lorentzian wings. The retrieved sodium abundances are consistent with being sub-solar to solar.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Physics Institute > Space Research and Planetary Sciences
08 Faculty of Science > Physics Institute
10 Strategic Research Centers > Center for Space and Habitability (CSH)
08 Faculty of Science > Physics Institute > NCCR PlanetS

UniBE Contributor:

Fisher, Chloe Elizabeth, Heng, Kevin

Subjects:

500 Science
500 Science > 520 Astronomy
500 Science > 530 Physics
500 Science > 540 Chemistry

ISSN:

0004-637X

Publisher:

Institute of Physics Publishing IOP

Language:

English

Submitter:

Danielle Zemp

Date Deposited:

14 Apr 2020 10:54

Last Modified:

02 Mar 2023 23:33

Publisher DOI:

10.3847/1538-4357/ab29e8

ArXiv ID:

1906.07035v1

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.142642

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/142642

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