Giant planet bulk and atmosphere metallicities

In particular, the planet's bulk metallicity, Zp, places an upper limit on the potential atmospheric metallicity. Here we construct interior structure models to derive Zp and atmospheric metallicity upper limits for 403 known transiting giant exoplanets.

These limits are low enough that they can usefully inform atmosphere models. Additionally, we argue that comparing Zp to the observed atmospheric metallicity gives a useful measure of how well mixed metals are within the planet. This represents a new avenue for learning about planetary interiors.