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Description
We validate the discovery of a 2-Earth-radii sub-Neptune-sized planet around the nearby high-proper-motion M2.5 dwarf G9-40 (EPIC212048748), using high-precision, near-infrared (NIR) radial velocity (RV) observations with the Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF), precision diffuser-assisted ground-based photometry with a custom narrowband photometric filter, and adaptive optics imaging. At a distance of d=27.9pc, G9-40b is the second-closest transiting planet discovered by K2 to date. The planet's large transit depth (~3500ppm), combined with the proximity and brightness of the host star at NIR wavelengths (J=10, K=9.2), makes G9-40b one of the most favorable sub-Neptune-sized planets orbiting an M dwarf for transmission spectroscopy with James Webb Space Telescope, ARIEL, and the upcoming Extremely Large Telescopes. The star is relatively inactive with a rotation period of ~29days determined from the K2 photometry. To estimate spectroscopic stellar parameters, we describe our implementation of an empirical spectral-matching algorithm using the high-resolution NIR HPF spectra. Using this algorithm, we obtain an effective temperature of Teff=3404{+/-}73K and metallicity of [Fe/H]=-0.08{+/-}0.13. Our RVs, when coupled with the orbital parameters derived from the transit photometry, exclude planet masses above 11.7M{Earth} with 99.7% confidence assuming a circular orbit. From its radius, we predict a mass of M=5.0_-1.9_^+3.8^M_{Earth}_ and an RV semiamplitude of K=4.1_-1.6_^+3.1^m/s, making its mass measurable with current RV facilities. We urge further RV follow-up observations to precisely measure its mass, to enable precise transmission spectroscopic measurements in the future.
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