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Register a new userA lucky imaging multiplicity study of exoplanet host stars II
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The vast majority of extrasolar planets are detected by indirect detection methods such as transit monitoring and radial velocity measurements. While these methods are very successful in detecting short-periodic planets, they are mostly blind to wide sub-stellar or even stellar companions on long orbits. In our study we present high resolution imaging observations of 63 exoplanet hosts carried out with the lucky imaging instrument AstraLux at the Calar Alto 2.2m telescope as well as with the new SPHERE high resolution adaptive optics imager at the ESO/VLT in the case of a known companion of specific interest. Our goal is to study the influence of stellar multiplicity on the planet formation process. We detected and confirmed 4 previously unknown stellar companions to the exoplanet hosts HD197037, HD217786, Kepler-21 and Kepler-68. In addition, we detected 11 new low-mass stellar companion candidates which must still be confirmed as bound companions. We also provide new astrometric and photometric data points for the recently discovered very close binary systems WASP-76 and HD2638. Furthermore, we show for the first time that the previously detected stellar companion to the HD185269 system is a very low mass binary. Finally we provide precise constraints on additional companions for all observed stars in our sample.
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To understand the influence of additional wide stellar companions on planet formation, it is necessary to determine the fraction of multiple stellar systems amongst the known extrasolar planet population. We target recently discovered radial velocity exoplanetary systems observable from the northern hemisphere and with sufficiently high proper motion to detect stellar companions via direct imaging. We utilize the Calar Alto 2.2m telescope in combination with its lucky imaging camera AstraLux. 71 planet host stars have been observed so far, yielding one new low-mass (0.239 pm 0.022Modot) stellar companion, 4.5 arcsec (227AU of projected separation) northeast of the planet host star HD185269, detected via astrometry with AstraLux. We also present follow-up astrometry on three previously discovered stellar companions, showing for the first time common proper motion of the 0.5 arcsec companion to HD126614. Additionally, we determined the achieved detection limits for all targets, which allows us to characterize the detection space of possible further companions of these stars.
We perform a detailed study of six transiting planetary systems with relatively bright stars close enough to affect observations of these systems. Light curves are analysed taking into account the contaminating light and its uncertainty. We present and apply a method to correct the velocity amplitudes of the host stars for the presence of contaminating light. We determine the physical properties of six systems (WASP-20, WASP-70, WASP-8, WASP-76, WASP-2 and WASP-131) accounting for contaminating light. In the case of WASP-20 the measured physical properties are very different for the three scenarios considered (ignoring binarity, planet transits brighter star, and planet transits fainter star). In the other five cases our results are very similar to those obtained neglecting contaminating light. We use our results to determine the mean correction factors to planet radius, $langle X_Rrangle$, mass, $langle X_Mrangle$, and density, $langle X_rhorangle$, caused by nearby objects. We find $langle X_Rrangle=1.009pm0.045$, which is smaller than literature values because we were able to reject the possibility that the planet orbits the fainter star in all but one case. We find $langle X_Mrangle=1.031pm0.019$, which is larger than $langle X_Rrangle$ because of the strength of the effect of contaminating light on the radial velocity measurements of the host star. We find $langle X_rhorangle=0.995pm 0.046$: the small size of this correction is due to two effects: the corrections on planet radius and mass partially cancel; and some nearby stars are close enough to contaminate the light curves of the system but not radial velocities of the host star. We conclude that binarity of planet host stars is important for the small number of transiting hot Jupiters with a very bright and close nearby star, but it has only a small effect on population-level studies of these objects.
Context: The influence of stellar multiplicity on planet formation is not yet well determined. Most planets are found using indirect detection methods via the small radial velocity or photometric variations of the primary star. These indirect detection methods are not sensitive to wide stellar companions. High-resolution imaging is thus needed to identify potential (sub)stellar companions to these stars. Aims: In this study we aim to determine the (sub)stellar multiplicity status of exoplanet host stars, that were not previously investigated for stellar multiplicity in the literature. For systems with non-detections we provide detailed detection limits to make them accessible for further statistical analysis. Methods: For this purpose we have employed previously unpublished high-resolution imaging data taken with VLT/NACO in a wide variety of different scientific programs and publicly accessible in the ESO archive. We used astrometric and theoretical population synthesis to determine whether detected companion candidates are likely to be bound or are merely chance-projected background objects. Results: We provide detailed detection limits for 39 systems and investigate 29 previously unknown companion candidates around five systems. In addition, we show for the first time that the previously known companion candidate around HD 204313 is likely a background object. By comparison with secondary epochs of 2MASS data we show that the companion candidates around GJ176 and HD 40307, as well as two of the sources around HD 85390, are likely background objects. For HD 113538 and HD 190984, as well as multiple further companion candidates around HD 85390, further observational data is required to test common proper motion of the companion candidates.
We obtained high-resolution, high-contrast optical imaging in the SDSS $i$ band with the LuckyCam camera mounted on the 2.56m Nordic Optical Telescope, to search for faint stellar companions to 16 stars harbouring transiting exoplanets. The Lucky Imaging technique uses very short exposures to obtain near diffraction-limited images yielding sub-arcsecond sensitivity, allowing us to search for faint stellar companions within the seeing disc of the primary planet host. Here we report the detection of two candidate stellar companions to the planet host TrES-1 at separations $<6.5arcsec$ and we confirm stellar companions to CoRoT-2, CoRoT-3, TrES-2, TrES-4, and HAT-P-7 already known in the literature. We do not confirm the candidate companions to HAT-P-8 found via Lucky Imaging by citet{Bergfors2013}, however, most probably because HAT-P-8 was observed in poor seeing conditions. Our detection sensitivity limits allow us to place constraints on the spectral types and masses of the putative bound companions to the planet host stars in our sample. If bound, the stellar companions identified in this work would provide stringent observational constraints to models of planet formation and evolution. In addition these companions could affect the derived physical properties of the exoplanets in these systems.
We present a study of 33 {it Kepler} planet-candidate host stars for which asteroseismic observations have sufficiently high signal-to-noise ratio to allow extraction of individual pulsation frequencies. We implement a new Bayesian scheme that is flexible in its input to process individual oscillation frequencies, combinations of them, and average asteroseismic parameters, and derive robust fundamental properties for these targets. Applying this scheme to grids of evolutionary models yields stellar properties with median statistical uncertainties of 1.2% (radius), 1.7% (density), 3.3% (mass), 4.4% (distance), and 14% (age), making this the exoplanet host-star sample with the most precise and uniformly determined fundamental parameters to date. We assess the systematics from changes in the solar abundances and mixing-length parameter, showing that they are smaller than the statistical errors. We also determine the stellar properties with three other fitting algorithms and explore the systematics arising from using different evolution and pulsation codes, resulting in 1% in density and radius, and 2% and 7% in mass and age, respectively. We confirm previous findings of the initial helium abundance being a source of systematics comparable to our statistical uncertainties, and discuss future prospects for constraining this parameter by combining asteroseismology and data from space missions. Finally we compare our derived properties with those obtained using the global average asteroseismic observables along with effective temperature and metallicity, finding an excellent level of agreement. Owing to selection effects, our results show that the majority of the high signal-to-noise ratio asteroseismic {it Kepler} host stars are older than the Sun.
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