Kepler's Small Planets and their Dependence on Stellar Mass

The “radius valley” is a feature in the short-period, small exoplanet population in Kepler and K2 data showing an abundance of super-Earths (1-2 Re) and mini-Neptunes (2-3.5 Re), with a relatively scarce population of intermediate-sized planets between the two. By employing updated stellar properties and implementing refined measures of completeness and reliability, we discover that the occurrence of super-Earths over that of mini-Neptune has a period and stellar mass dependence. We use these dependencies to extrapolate the occurrence of super-Earths in the habitable zone of MKGF stars. Finally, we discuss our results in the context of PLATO’s search for long-period small planets and their dependence on stellar mass.