Revisiting the Radius Valley Across Stellar Types: A Transit-Only Analysis of M, K, G, and F Stars with Updated NASA Exoplanet Archive Data

Abstract

The radius valley -- a deficit of exoplanets between super-Earths and sub-Neptunes -- is a key diagnostic of planet formation and atmospheric evolution. We investigate how the radius valley depends on stellar type by analyzing an updated, transit-only sample of exoplanets from the NASA Exoplanet Archive. Planets are selected with $P < 100$ days and divided by host spectral class (M, K, G, F). We construct weighted radius distributions and apply statistical tests to quantify the valley depth. We recover a pronounced valley centered near $\sim 1.8\,R_\oplus$ for G/K stars, but shifted to $\sim 1.6\,R_\oplus$ for M dwarfs and $\sim 1.9\,R_\oplus$ for F stars. These results support the view that the radius valley is shaped by stellar-dependent processes such as photoevaporation, core-powered mass loss, and orbital migration.