Saggese, Vito (2026) Multiplanetary Systems in the Era of the Roman and PLATO Missions. [Tesi di dottorato]

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Abstract

The demographic study of multiplanetary systems provides a unique window into the processes of planet formation and evolution. Despite extensive observational efforts, our knowledge of these planetary systems remains incomplete and strongly biased toward close-in planets, leaving their overall architecture and diversity only partially explored. The upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and ESA’s PLATO mission will improve this picture by extending the exploration to complementary regions of parameter space, ranging from cold, distant planets to temperate, Earth-sized worlds orbiting Sun-like stars. This Ph.D. thesis investigates how these two missions will advance the understanding of planetary system architectures. To characterize the multiple-lens microlensing events that will be detectable by Roman, a numerical code was developed to compute their light curves. The code employs optimized algorithms capable of accurately resolving triple-lens configurations with enhanced numerical stability and computational efficiency. Using this tool, large-scale simulations of triple-lens microlensing events, representing systems composed of a host star and two planetary companions, were carried out in the high-magnification regime. These simulations enabled a quantitative assessment of Roman’s sensitivity to multi-planet configurations and its capability to detect and characterize such systems under realistic observing conditions. In parallel, the analysis of the PLATO mission focuses on the long-term dynamical behavior of known multiplanetary systems discovered by TESS within the mission’s future LOPS2 observing field. The MEGNO chaos indicator was employed to map their dynamical stability and to identify regions where additional Earth-mass planets could exist without destabilizing the configuration. This analysis demonstrates how PLATO’s extended time baseline and superior photometric precision will complement observations from TESS, enabling the search for smaller, longer-period, and potentially habitable planets in compact nearby systems.

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