Investigating Radius Increases in Hot Exoplanets

Exoplanetary radii is the most commonly measured property of exoplanets, and thus our understanding of how to interpret any measured radius is crucial to the field. Atmospheric existence is often inferred from radius and mass observations, but this is based on the assumption that the interior of planets do not maintain most of the gravitational energy from their collapse. Recently, there have been doubts about this assumption. This project aims to investigate the potential consequences of planets retaining most of the energy from their collapse. Assuming the Murnaghan EOS, we find that stable rocky planets that maintain some of their gravitational energy can have sizeable radius increases, as much as 21% for a planet of 10 M⊕. Furthermore, limits on the amount of energy that can be maintained by a planet will be discussed.