The GAPS Programme at TNG: LIV. A HeI survey of close-in giant planets hosted by M-K dwarf stars with GIANO-B

Abstract

Atmospheric escape plays a fundamental role in shaping the properties of exoplanets. The metastable near-infrared helium triplet at 1083.3 nm (HeI) is a powerful proxy of extended and evaporating atmospheres. We used the GIARPS (GIANO-B+HARPS-N) observing mode of the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo to search for HeI absorption in the upper atmosphere of five close-in giant planets hosted by the K and M dwarf stars of our sample, namely WASP-69b, WASP-107b, HAT-P-11b, GJ436b, and GJ3470b. We focused our analysis on the HeI triplet by performing high-resolution transmission spectroscopy. When nightly variability in the HeI absorption signal was identified, we investigated the potential influence of stellar magnetic activity by searching for variations in the H$α$. We spectrally resolve the HeI triplet and confirm the published detections for WASP-69b (3.91$\pm$0.22%, 17.6$σ$), WASP-107b (8.17$^{+0.80}_{-0.76}$%, 10.5$σ$), HAT-P-11b (1.36$\pm$0.17%, 8.0$σ$), and GJ3470b (1.75$^{+0.39}_{-0.36}$%, 4.7$σ$). We do not find evidence of extra absorption for GJ436b. We observe night-to-night variations in the HeI absorption signal for WASP-69b, associated with variability in H$α$, which likely indicates the influence of stellar activity. Additionally, we find that the HeI signal of GJ3470b originates from a single transit, thereby corroborating the discrepancies in the existing literature. An inspection of the H$α$ reveals an absorption signal during the same transit. By combining our findings with previous analyses of GIANO-B HeI measurements of planets around K dwarfs, we explore potential trends with planetary/stellar parameters that are thought to affect the HeI absorption. Our analysis is unable to identify clear patterns, emphasising the need for further measurements and the exploration of additional potential parameters that might influence HeI absorption.