- Centre for Planetary Habitability (PHAB), Universitetet i Oslo (UiO), Oslo, Norway (li.zeng@geo.uio.no)
More than one hundred years ago, physics has been revolutionized when people realized that electronic orbitals, or electromagnetic interactions in general, are quantized. Now, in this study, we are presenting evidence of quantization of planet orbits around stars. Confining a wave in spatial dimensions "quantizes" its wave number. Therefore, this study points to the evidence of the existence of long-range standing waves in the proto-planetary disks. Such waves, although being on a much larger scale of few tens of AU, have already been found by ALMA observation—so called ring-like structure. Now we see that it may exist within 1 AU, and may exert its effect on the existence and distribution of planets within this distance range to the host star. Careful analysis has been carried out to compare the results of different surveys. This could also be caused by multiple condensation fronts of water and other cosmic ices in the proto-planetary disk.
How to cite: Zeng, L.: Orbital semi-major axis distribution of sub-Neptunes, Europlanet Science Congress 2026, The Hague, The Netherlands, 7–11 Sep 2026, EPSC2026-98, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2026-98, 2026.