Water dissociation and rotational broadening in the atmosphere of KELT-20 b from high-resolution spectroscopy

We present atmospheric retrievals from Keck/KPIC phase II observations of the ultra-hot Jupiter KELT-20/MASCARA-2~b. Previous free retrievals of molecular abundances for ultra-hot Jupiters have been impacted by significant model biases due to variations in vertical abundance profiles, which we address by including molecular dissociation into our retrieval framework as an additional free parameter. We measure the abundance of CO (log COMMR = -2.5+0.6-0.5) and obtain a lower limit on the abundance of H₂O (log H₂OMMR = -1.5+0.8-1.0, $>-3.0$ at 95% confidence) in the atmosphere of . These abundances yield an atmospheric C/O = 0.1+0.4-0.1 (C/O < 0.9 at 95% confidence) and suggest a metallicity approximately solar to 10× solar. H₂O is dissociated at pressures below log PH₂O = -1.2+0.5-0.7 bar, roughly consistent with predictions from chemical equilibrium models, and suggesting that the retrieved composition is not a result of assumptions about the vertical mixing profiles. We also constrain the rotational velocity of \ to vsin i = 7.5±0.7 , suggesting the presence of a jet comparable to the sound speed in the direction of the planet's rotation, assuming the actual rotation of the planet is tidally locked.