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Register a new userRadial Velocity Detection of Earth-mass Planets in the Presence of Activity Noise: The Case of Alpha Centauri Bb
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Artie P. Hatzes
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We present an analysis of the publicly available HARPS radial velocity (RV) measurements for Alpha Cen B, a star hosting an Earth-mass planet candidate in a 3.24 day orbit. The goal is to devise robust ways of extracting low-amplitude RV signals of low mass planets in the presence of activity noise. Two approaches were used to remove the stellar activity signal which dominates the RV variations: 1) Fourier component analysis (pre-whitening), and 2) local trend filtering (LTF) of the activity using short time windows of the data. The Fourier procedure results in a signal at P = 3.236 days and K = 0.42 m/s which is consistent with the presence of an Earth-mass planet, but the false alarm probability for this signal is rather high at a few percent. The LTF results in no significant detection of the planet signal, although it is possible to detect a marginal planet signal with this method using a different choice of time windows and fitting functions. However, even in this case the significance of the 3.24-d signal depends on the details of how a time window containing only 10% of the data is filtered. Both methods should have detected the presence of Alpha Cen Bb at a higher significance than is actually seen. We also investigated the influence of random noise with a standard deviation comparable to the HARPS data and sampled in the same way. The distribution of the noise peaks in the period range 2.8 - 3.3 days have a maximum of approximately 3.2 days and amplitudes approximately one-half of the K-amplitude for the planet. The presence of the activity signal may boost the velocity amplitude of these signals to values comparable to the planet. It may be premature to attribute the 3.24 day RV variations to an Earth-mass planet. A better understanding of the noise characteristics in the RV data as well as more measurements with better sampling will be needed to confirm this exoplanet.
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Giant exoplanets on wide orbits have been directly imaged around young stars. If the thermal background in the mid-infrared can be mitigated, then exoplanets with lower masses can also be imaged. Here we present a ground-based mid-infrared observing approach that enables imaging low-mass temperate exoplanets around nearby stars, and in particular within the closest stellar system, Alpha Centauri. Based on 75-80% of the best quality images from 100 hours of cumulative observations, we demonstrate sensitivity to warm sub-Neptune-sized planets throughout much of the habitable zone of Alpha Centauri A. This is an order of magnitude more sensitive than state-of-the-art exoplanet imaging mass detection limits. We also discuss a possible exoplanet or exozodiacal disk detection around Alpha Centauri A. However, an instrumental artifact of unknown origin cannot be ruled out. These results demonstrate the feasibility of imaging rocky habitable-zone exoplanets with current and upcoming telescopes.
Accounting for stellar activity is a crucial component of the search for ever-smaller planets orbiting stars of all spectral types. We use Doppler imaging methods to demonstrate that starspot induced radial velocity variability can be effectively reduced for moderately rotating, fully convective stars. Using starspot distributions extrapolated from sunspot observations, we adopt typical M dwarf starspot distributions with low contrast spots to synthesise line profile distortions. The distortions are recovered using maximum entropy regularised fitting and the corresponding stellar radial velocities are measured. The procedure is demonstrated for a late-M star harbouring an orbiting planet in the habitable zone. The technique is effective for stars with vsini = 1-10 km/s, reducing the stellar noise contribution by factors of nearly an order of magnitude. With a carefully chosen observing strategy, the technique can be used to determine the stellar rotation period and is robust to uncertainties such as unknown stellar inclination. While demonstrated for late-type M stars, the procedure is applicable to all spectral types.
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