Searching for Stellar Companions for Transiting Exoplanet Host Stars

A Lucky Imaging search for stellar companions to transiting planet host stars

Authors:

Wöllert et al

Abstract:

The presence of stellar companions around planet hosting stars influences the architecture of their planetary systems. To find and characterise these companions and determine their orbits is thus an important consideration to understand planet formation and evolution. For transiting systems even unbound field stars are of interest if they are within the photometric aperture of the light curve measurement. Then they contribute a constant flux offset to the transit light curve and bias the derivation of the stellar and planetary parameters if their existence is unknown. Close stellar sources are, however, easily overlooked by common planet surveys due to their limited spatial resolution. We therefore performed high angular resolution imaging of 49 transiting exoplanet hosts to identify unresolved binaries, characterize their spectral type, and determine their separation. The observations were carried out with the Calar Alto 2.2m telescope using the Lucky Imaging camera AstraLux Norte. All targets were imaged in i' and z' passbands. We found new companion candidates to WASP-14 and WASP-58, and we re-observed the stellar companion candidates to CoRoT-2, CoRoT-3, CoRoT-11, HAT-P-7, HAT-P-8, HAT-P-41, KIC 10905746, TrES-2, TrES-4, and WASP-2. We deduce from the stellar density around all sources that two companion candidates out of the targets with the first position measurement (CoRoT-11, HAT-P-41, KIC 10905746, WASP-14 and WASP-58) are probably unbound. In addition, we re-analyse the influence of the sources close to WASP-14 and WASP-58 on the planetary parameters given in the literature and find no significant changes.

Reexamining the TrES-2 System

Transit timing of TrES-2: a combined analysis of ground- and space-based photometry

Authors:

Raetz et al

Abstract:

Homogeneous observations and careful analysis of transit light curves can lead to the identification of transit timing variations (TTVs). TrES-2 is one of few exoplanets, which offer the matchless possibility to combine long-term ground-based observations with continuous satellite data. Our research aimed at the search for TTVs that would be indicative of perturbations from additional bodies in the system. We also wanted to refine the system parameters and the orbital elements. We obtained 44 ground-based light curves of 31 individual transit events of TrES-2. Eight 0.2–2.2-m telescopes located at six observatories in Germany, Poland and Spain were used. In addition, we analysed 18 quarters (Q0–Q17) of observational data from NASA's space telescope Kepler including 435 individual transit events and 11 publicly available ground-based light curves. Assuming different limb darkening (LD) laws we performed an analysis for all light curves and redetermined the parameters of the system. We also carried out a joint analysis of the ground- and space-based data. The long observation period of seven years (2007–2013) allowed a very precise redetermination of the transit ephemeris. For a total of 490 transit light curves of TrES-2, the time of transit mid-point was determined. The transit times support neither variations on long time-scale nor on short time-scales. The nearly continuous observations of Kepler show no statistically significant increase or decrease in the orbital inclination i and the transit duration D. Only the transit depth shows a slight increase which could be an indication of an increasing stellar activity. In general, system parameters obtained by us were found to be in agreement with previous studies but are the most precise values to date.

Superrotation Detected in Four Hot Jupiters

BEER analysis of Kepler and CoRoT light curves: II. Evidence for emission phase shift due to superrotation in four Kepler hot Jupiters

Authors:

Faigler et al

Abstract:

We analyzed the Kepler light curves of four transiting hot-Jupiter systems- KOI-13, HAT-P-7, TrES-2 and Kepler-76, which show BEaming, Ellipsoidal and Reflection (BEER) phase modulations. The mass of the four planets can be estimated from either the beaming or the ellipsoidal amplitude, given the mass and radii of their parent stars. For all four systems, we find that the beaming-based planetary-mass estimate is larger than the mass estimated from the ellipsoidal amplitude, consistent with previous studies for three of these systems- KOI-13, TrES-2 and Kepler-76. We suggest the apparent discrepancy is due to superrotation, first observed for HD 189733b in the infrared. Superrotation of a tidally-locked hot-Jupiter involves an eastward displacement of the planet hot spot from the substellar point, probably due to winds in the planetary atmosphere, an effect that induces an angle shift of the planet reflection/emission phase modulation. In our analysis this angle shift "leaks" into the beaming modulation, artificially increasing its amplitude. Therefore, the mass derived from the beaming amplitude is larger than the real one. We propose a modified BEER model that includes superrotation and provides a photometry-consistent estimate of the planetary mass. Our analysis shows that the new superrotation BEER model fits the data better than a zero phase-shift null model for KOI-13, HAT-P-7, TrES-2 and Kepler-76. The new model mass estimates are in excellent agreement with the planetary masses derived from radial-velocity measurements, available for HAT-P-7, TrES-2 and Kepler-76. This makes the superrotation BEER model a viable tool for estimating the masses of hot-Jupiters from the photometric BEER modulations alone. We conclude that hot-Jupiter superrotation may be a common phenomena that can be detected in the Kepler light curves of planets that show significant BEER phase modulations.