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In the pebble accretion scenario, the pebbles that form planets drift inwardfrom the outer disk regions, carrying water ice with them. At the water iceline, the water ice on the inward drifting pebbles evaporates and is releasedinto the gas phase, resulting in water-rich gas and dry pebbles that move intothe inner disk regions. Large planetary cores can block the inward driftingpebbles by forming a pressure bump outside their orbit in the protoplanetarydisk. Depending on the relative position of a growing planetary core relativeto the water ice line, water-rich pebbles might be blocked outside or insidethe water ice line. Pebbles blocked outside the water ice line do not evaporateand thus do not release their water vapor into the gas phase, resulting in adry inner disk, while pebbles blocked inside the water ice line release theirwater vapor into the gas phase, resulting in water vapor diffusing into theinner disk. As a consequence, close-in sub-Neptunes that accrete some gas fromthe disk should be dry or wet, respectively, if outer gas giants are outside orinside the water ice line, assuming that giant planets form fast, as has beensuggested for Jupiter in our Solar System. Alternatively, a sub-Neptune couldform outside the water ice line, accreting a large amount of icy pebbles andthen migrating inward as a very wet sub-Neptune. We suggest that the watercontent of inner sub-Neptunes in systems with giant planets that canefficiently block the inward drifting pebbles could constrain the formationconditions of these systems, thus making these sub-Neptunes exciting targetsfor detailed characterization (e.g., with JWST, ELT, or ARIEL). In addition,the search for giant planets in systems with already characterized sub-Neptunescan be used to constrain the formation conditions of giant planets as well.

Dry or water world? How the water contents of inner sub-Neptunes constrain giant planet formation and the location of the water ice line