  Simulations predict that hot super-Earth sized exoplanets can have their
envelopes stripped by photo-evaporation, which would present itself as a lack
of these exoplanets. However, this absence in the exoplanet population has
escaped a firm detection. Here we demonstrate, using asteroseismology on a
sample of exoplanets and exoplanet candidates observed during the Kepler
mission that, while there is an abundance of super-Earth sized exoplanets with
low incident fluxes, none are found with high incident fluxes. We do not find
any exoplanets with radii between 2.2 and 3.8 Earth radii with incident flux
above 650 times the incident flux on Earth. This gap in the population of
exoplanets is explained by evaporation of volatile elements and thus supports
the predictions. The confirmation of a hot-super-Earth desert caused by
evaporation will add an important constraint on simulations of planetary
systems, since they must be able to reproduce the dearth of close-in
super-Earths.
