Engineering topics

Coughlin, J L

Publications and source records attributed to Coughlin, J L.

4 records

DOE OSTI2012

MODELING MULTI-WAVELENGTH STELLAR ASTROMETRY. III. DETERMINATION OF THE ABSOLUTE MASSES OF EXOPLANETS AND THEIR HOST STARS

Astrometric measurements of stellar systems are becoming significantly more precise and common, with many ground- and space-based instruments and missions approaching 1 {mu}as precision. We examine the multi-wavelength astrometric orbits of exoplanetary systems via both analytical formulae and numerical modeling. Exoplanets have a combination of reflected and thermally emitted light that causes the photocenter of the system to shift increasingly farther away from the host star with increasing wavelength. We find that, if observed at long enough wavelengths, the planet can dominate the astrometric motion of the system, and thus it is possible to directly measure the orbits of both the planet and star, and thus directly determine the physical masses of the star and planet, using multi-wavelength astrometry. In general, this technique works best for, though is certainly not limited to, systems that have large, high-mass stars and large, low-mass planets, which is a unique parameter space not covered by other exoplanet characterization techniques. Exoplanets that happen to transit their host star present unique cases where the physical radii of the planet and star can be directly determined via astrometry alone. Planetary albedos and day-night contrast ratios may also be probed via this technique due to the unique signature they impart on the observed astrometric orbits. We develop a tool to examine the prospects for near-term detection of this effect, and give examples of some exoplanets that appear to be good targets for detection in the K to N infrared observing bands, if the required precision can be achieved.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2012

A UNIFORM SEARCH FOR SECONDARY ECLIPSES OF HOT JUPITERS IN KEPLER Q2 LIGHT CURVES

In this paper, we present the results of searching the Kepler Q2 public data set for the secondary eclipses of 76 hot Jupiter planet candidates from the list of 1235 candidates published by Borucki et al. This search has been performed by modeling both the Kepler pre-search data conditioned light curves and new light curves produced via our own photometric pipeline. We derive new stellar and planetary parameters for each system, while calculating robust errors for both. We find 16 systems with 1{sigma}-2{sigma}, 14 systems with 2{sigma}-3{sigma}, and 6 systems with >3{sigma} confidence level secondary eclipse detections in at least one light curve produced via the Kepler pre-search data conditioned light curve or our own pipeline; however, results can vary depending on the light curve modeled and whether eccentricity is allowed to vary or not. We estimate false alarm probabilities of 31%, 10%, and 6% for the 1{sigma}-2{sigma}, 2{sigma}-3{sigma}, and >3{sigma} confidence intervals, respectively. Comparing each secondary eclipse result to theoretical expectations, we find that the majority of detected planet candidates emit more light than expected owing to thermal blackbody emission in the optical Kepler bandpass, and present a trend of increasing excess emission with decreasing maximum effective planetary temperature. These results agree with previously published optical secondary eclipse data for other hot Jupiters. We explore modeling biases, significant planetary albedos, non-local thermodynamic equilibrium or other thermal emission, significant internal energy generation, and misidentification of brown dwarfs, low-mass stars, or stellar blends as possible causes of both the excess emission and its correlation with expected planetary temperature. Although we find that no single cause is able to explain all of the planet candidates, significant planetary albedos, with a general trend of increasing planetary albedos with decreasing atmospheric temperatures, are able to explain most of the systems. Identifying systems that we deem likely to be low-mass stars or stellar blends, we estimate an 11% false-positive rate in the current Kepler planet candidate sample of hot Jupiters. We also establish robust upper limits on the eclipse depth for the remaining systems and find that the emission of a significant fraction of these systems is consistent with the planets having very low albedos, i.e., at least 30% of all systems have A{sub g} < 0.3 at 1{sigma} confidence levels. This result augments the current number of constrained exoplanetary albedos and extends the sample of low albedo determinations to planets with temperatures as low as 1200 K. Finally, we note that continued observations with the Kepler spacecraft and improved techniques for the removal of systematic noise in the Kepler data are needed to better characterize these systems.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2012

KEPLER CYCLE 1 OBSERVATIONS OF LOW-MASS STARS: NEW ECLIPSING BINARIES, SINGLE STAR ROTATION RATES, AND THE NATURE AND FREQUENCY OF STARSPOTS

We have analyzed Kepler light curves for 849 stars with T{sub eff} {<=} 5200 K from our Cycle 1 Guest Observer program. We identify six new eclipsing binaries, one of which has an orbital period of 29.91 days and two of which are probably W UMa variables. In addition, we identify a candidate 'warm Jupiter' exoplanet. We further examine a subset of 670 sources for variability. Of these objects, 265 stars clearly show periodic variability that we assign to rotation of the low-mass star. At the photometric precision level provided by Kepler, 251 of our objects showed no evidence for variability. We were unable to determine periods for 154 variable objects. We find that 79% of stars with T{sub eff} {<=} 5200 K are variable. The rotation periods we derive for the periodic variables span the range 0.31 days {<=} P{sub rot} {<=} 126.5 days. A considerable number of stars with rotation periods similar to the solar value show activity levels that are 100 times higher than the Sun. This is consistent with results for solar-like field stars. As has been found in previous studies, stars with shorter rotation periods generally exhibit larger modulations. This trend flattens beyond P{sub rot} = 25 days, demonstrating that even long-period binaries may still have components with high levels of activity and investigating whether the masses and radii of the stellar components in these systems are consistent with stellar models could remain problematic. Surprisingly, our modeling of the light curves suggests that the active regions on these cool stars are either preferentially located near the rotational poles, or that there are two spot groups located at lower latitudes, but in opposing hemispheres.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2011

LOW-MASS ECLIPSING BINARIES IN THE INITIAL KEPLER DATA RELEASE

We identify 231 objects in the newly released Cycle 0 data set from the Kepler Mission as double-eclipse, detached eclipsing binary systems with T{sub eff} < 5500 K and orbital periods shorter than {approx}32 days. We model each light curve using the JKTEBOP code with a genetic algorithm to obtain precise values for each system. We identify 95 new systems with both components below 1.0 M{sub sun} and eclipses of at least 0.1 mag, suitable for ground-based follow-up. Of these, 14 have periods less than 1.0 day, 52 have periods between 1.0 and 10.0 days, and 29 have periods greater than 10.0 days. This new sample of main-sequence, low-mass, double-eclipse, detached eclipsing binary candidates more than doubles the number of previously known systems and extends the sample into the completely heretofore unexplored P > 10.0 day period regime. We find preliminary evidence from these systems that the radii of low-mass stars in binary systems decrease with period. This supports the theory that binary spin-up is the primary cause of inflated radii in low-mass binary systems, although a full analysis of each system with radial-velocity and multi-color light curves is needed to fully explore this hypothesis. Also, we present seven new transiting planet candidates that do not appear among the list of 706 candidates recently released by the Kepler team, or in the Kepler False Positive Catalog, along with several other new and interesting systems. We also present novel techniques for the identification, period analysis, and modeling of eclipsing binaries.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗