Faculty Mentor: Christopher Reilly (Physics & Astronomy, University of Utah)

Our project, Searching for Planet Hosts Among Stars with Cold Debris Disks, focuses on identifying potential exoplanet host stars within a new, as-of-yet-unpublished catalog of stars exhibiting cold debris rings- structures often associated with planetary formation. To accomplish this, a machine learning algorithm was developed and trained on a dataset of confirmed planet host stars to identify key features indicative of planetary companions. The model was validated using real world data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive and Gaia Data Release 3, and further refined by incorporating edge cases such as systems with stellar companions, which can complicate detection. Once validated, the algorithm was applied to the cold debris disk catalog to flag likely planet hosting candidates. The resulting list of candidate planet hosts represents a promising starting point for follow-up studies aimed at direct exoplanet detection. By narrowing the field to stars with the strongest astrometric and photometric signatures of planetary companions, this work provides a scalable framework for future exoplanet discovery.

Najita, J. R., & Kenyon, S. J. 2023, ApJ, 944, 125,doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/acac8f

Wyatt, M. C. 2008, Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics.