A cloaking device for transiting planets

Kipping, David; Teachey, Alex

doi:10.1093/mnras/stw672

Cited by 49 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…It is also worth nothing the prior for the orbital eccentricities, which is the Kumaraswamy distribution (Kumaraswamy 1980), with shape parameters α = 0.867 and β = 3.03. This distribution closely matches the Beta distribution proposed by Kipping (2013), which is used as an approximation to the frequency distribution of exoplanet eccentricities. The Kumaraswamy distribution has a small computational advantage since its cumulative distribution function can be easily evaluated.…”

Section: Prior Distributionssupporting

confidence: 82%

Decoding the radial velocity variations of HD 41248 with ESPRESSO

Faria

Adibekyan

Amazo-Gómez

et al. 2020

A&A

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Context. Twenty-four years after the discoveries of the first exoplanets, the radial-velocity (RV) method is still one of the most productive techniques to detect and confirm exoplanets. But stellar magnetic activity can induce RV variations large enough to make it difficult to disentangle planet signals from the stellar noise. In this context, HD 41248 is an interesting planet-host candidate, with RV observations plagued by activity-induced signals. Aims. We report on ESPRESSO observations of HD 41248 and analyse them together with previous observations from HARPS with the goal of evaluating the presence of orbiting planets. Methods. Using different noise models within a general Bayesian framework designed for planet detection in RV data, we test the significance of the various signals present in the HD 41248 dataset. We use Gaussian processes as well as a first-order moving average component to try to correct for activity-induced signals. At the same time, we analyse photometry from the TESS mission, searching for transits and rotational modulation in the light curve.Results. The number of significantly detected Keplerian signals depends on the noise model employed, which can range from 0 with the Gaussian process model to 3 with a white noise model. We find that the Gaussian process alone can explain the RV data while allowing for the stellar rotation period and active region evolution timescale to be constrained. The rotation period estimated from the RVs agrees with the value determined from the TESS light curve. Conclusions. Based on the data that is currently available, we conclude that the RV variations of HD 41248 can be explained by stellar activity (using the Gaussian process model) in line with the evidence from activity indicators and the TESS photometry.

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Section: Prior Distributionssupporting

confidence: 82%

Decoding the radial velocity variations of HD 41248 with ESPRESSO

Faria

Adibekyan

Amazo-Gómez

et al. 2020

A&A

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“…Disintegrating planets (Rappaport et al 2012), photoevaporation (Vidal-Madjar et al 2003), circumstellar material (Vanderburg et al 2015), proto-satellite disks (Mamajek et al 2012), bow shocks (Llama et al 2013), gravity darkening (Barnes 2009), planetary oblateness , atmospheric refraction , and even extreme orbital eccentricities (Kipping 2008) have all been argued to be other plausible astrophysical effects which could distort the transit. Distorted transits have even been argued to be a possible means of detecting advanced civilizations (Arnold 2005;Korpela et al 2015;Kipping & Teachey 2016). While small perturbations to the transit should not greatly impact BLS's sensitivity, highly irregular transits require another approach.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The weird detector: flagging periodic, coherent signals of arbitrary shape in time-series photometry

Wheeler

Kipping

2019

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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By design, model-based approaches for flagging transiting exoplanets in light curves, such as boxed least squares, excel at detecting planets with low S/N at the expense of finding signals that are not well described by the assumed model, such as self-lensing binaries, disintegrating or evaporating planets, or planets with large rings. So far, such signals have typically been found through visual searches by professional or citizen scientists, or by inspection of the photometric power-spectra. We present a nonparametric detection algorithm, for short duty-cycle periodic signals in photometric time series based on phase dispersion minimization. We apply our code to 161,786 Kepler sources and detect 18 new periodic signals consistent with heartbeat binaries/planets, 4 new singly-transiting systems, and 2 new doubly-transiting systems. We show that our code is able to recover the majority of known Kepler objects of interest (KOIs) to high confidence, as well as more unusual events such as Boyajian's star and a comet passing through the Kepler field. Nonparametric signal-flagging techniques, such as the one presented here, will become increasingly valuable with the coming data from TESS and future transit surveys as the volume of data available to us exceeds that which can be feasibly examined manually.

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“…There is also renewed interest in detecting the light from propulsion systems based on radiation pressure for interstellar spacecraft, such as the near-IR Gigawatt laser system outlined by the Breakthrough StarShot initiative (Zubrin 1995, Lubin et al 2016, Kipping & Teachey 2016 http://breakthroughinitiatives.org/Initiative/3).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Search for Laser Emission with Megawatt Thresholds from 5600 FGKM Stars

Tellis¹,

Marcy²

2017

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We searched high resolution spectra of 5600 nearby stars for emission lines that are both inconsistent with a natural origin and unresolved spatially, as would be expected from extraterrestrial optical lasers.The spectra were obtained with the Keck 10-meter telescope, including light coming from within 0.5 arcsec of the star, corresponding typically to within a few to tens of au of the star, and covering nearly the entire visible wavelength range from 3640 to 7890 Å. We establish detection thresholds by injecting synthetic laser emission lines into our spectra and blindly analyzing them for detections. We compute flux density detection thresholds for all wavelengths and spectral types sampled. Our detection thresholds for the power of the lasers themselves range from 3 kW to 13 MW, independent of distance to the star but dependent on the competing "glare" of the spectral energy distribution of the star and on the wavelength of the laser light, launched from a benchmark, diffraction-limited 10-meter class telescope. We found no such laser emission coming from the planetary region around any of the 5600 stars. As they contain roughly 2000 lukewarm, Earth-size planets, we rule out models of the Milky Way in which over 0.1% of warm, Earth-size planets harbor technological civilizations that, intentionally or not, are beaming optical lasers toward us. A next generation spectroscopic laser search will be done by the Breakthrough Listen initiative, targeting more stars, especially stellar types overlooked here including spectral types O, B, A, early F, late M, and brown dwarfs, and astrophysical exotica.

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A cloaking device for transiting planets

Cited by 49 publications

References 37 publications

Decoding the radial velocity variations of HD 41248 with ESPRESSO

Decoding the radial velocity variations of HD 41248 with ESPRESSO

The weird detector: flagging periodic, coherent signals of arbitrary shape in time-series photometry

A Search for Laser Emission with Megawatt Thresholds from 5600 FGKM Stars

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