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Register a new userPotential Biases in the Detection of Planetary Systems with Large Transit Timing Variations
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Added by
Mercedes Lopez-Morales
Publication date
2011
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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The Transit Timing Variations (TTVs) technique provides a powerful tool to detect additional planets in transiting exoplanetary systems. In this paper we show how transiting planets with significant TTVs can be systematically missed, or cataloged as false positives, by current transit search algorithms, unless they are in multi-transit systems. If the period of the TTVs, P_TTV, is longer than the time baseline of the observations and its amplitude, A_TTV, is larger than the timing precision limit of the data, transiting planet candidates are still detected, but with incorrect ephemerides. Therefore, they will be discarded during follow-up. When P_TTV is shorter than the time baseline of the observations and A_TTV is sufficiently large, constant period search algorithms find an average period for the system, which results in altered transit durations and depths in the folded light curves. Those candidates can get subsequently discarded as eclipsing binaries, grazing eclipses, or blends. Also, for large enough A_TTVs, the transits can get fully occulted by the photometric dispersion of the light curves. These detection biases could explain the observed statistical differences between the frequency of multiple systems among planets detected via other techniques and those detected via transits. We suggest that new transit search algorithms allowing for non-constant period planets should be implemented.
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Transits in the planetary system WASP-4 were recently found to occur 80s earlier than expected in observations from the TESS satellite. We present 22 new times of mid-transit that confirm the existence of transit timing variations, and are well fitted by a quadratic ephemeris with period decay dP/dt = -9.2 +/- 1.1 ms/yr. We rule out instrumental issues, stellar activity and the Applegate mechanism as possible causes. The light-time effect is also not favoured due to the non-detection of changes in the systemic velocity. Orbital decay and apsidal precession are plausible but unproven. WASP-4b is only the third hot Jupiter known to show transit timing variations to high confidence. We discuss a variety of observations of this and other planetary systems that would be useful in improving our understanding of WASP-4 in particular and orbital decay in general.
In this Letter we present observations of recent HAT-P-13b transits. The combined analysis of published and newly obtained transit epochs shows evidence for significant transit timing variations since the last publicly available ephemerides. Variation of transit timings result in a sudden switch of transit times. The detected full range of TTV spans ~0.015 days, which is significantly more than the known TTV events exhibited by hot Jupiters. If we have detected a periodic process, its period should be at least ~3 years because there are no signs of variations in the previous observations. This argument makes unlikely that the measured TTV is due to perturbations by HAT-P-13c.
Transit timing variations (TTVs) are useful to constrain the existence of perturbing planets, especially in resonant systems where the variations are strongly enhanced. Here we focus on Laplace-resonant three-planet systems, and assume the inner planet transits the star. A dynamical study is performed for different masses of the three bodies, with a special attention to terrestrial planets. We consider a maximal time-span of ~ 100 years and discuss the shape of the inner planet TTVs curve. Using frequency analysis, we highlight the three periods related to the evolution of the system: two periods associated with the Laplace-resonant angle and the third one with the precession of the pericenters. These three periods are clearly detected in the TTVs of an inner giant planet perturbed by two terrestrial companions. Only two periods are detected for a Jupiter-Jupiter-Earth configuration (the ones associated with the giant interactions) or for three terrestrial planets (the Laplace periods). However, the latter system can be constrained from the inner planet TTVs. We finally remark that the TTVs of resonant three or two Jupiter systems mix up, when the period of the Laplace resonant angle matches the pericenter precession of the two-body configuration. This study highlights the importance of TTVs long-term observational programs for the detection of multiple-planet resonant systems.
We present 33 transit minimum times of 20 transiting planets discovered by the CoRoT mission, which have been obtained from ground-based observations since the missions end in 2012, with the objective to maintain the ephemeris of these planets. Twelve of the observed planets are in the CoRoT fields near the galactic center and the remaining eight planets are in the fields near the anticenter. We detect indications for significant transit timing variations in the cases of CoRoT 3b, 11b, 13b, 27b. For two more planets (CoRoT 18b and 20b) we conclude that timing offsets in early follow-up observations led to ephemeris in discovery publications that are inconsistent with timings from follow-up observations in later epochs. In the case of CoRoT-20b, this might be due to the influence from a further non-transiting planet. We also note that a significant majority (23 of 33) of our reported minimum times have negative O-C values, albeit most of them are within the expected uncertainty of the ephemeris.
Aims. Hot Jupiters are thought to belong to single-planet systems. Somewhat surprisingly, some hot Jupiters have been reported to exhibit transit timing variations (TTVs). The aim of this paper is to identify the origin of these observations, identify possible periodic biases leading to false TTV detections, and refine the sample to a few candidates with likely dynamical TTVs. Methods. We present TTV frequencies and amplitudes of hot Jupiters in Kepler Q0--6 data with Fourier analysis and a frequency-dependent bootstrap calculation to assess the false alarm probability levels of the detections. Results. We identified 36 systems with TTV above four standard deviation confidence, about half of them exhibiting multiple TTV frequencies. Fifteen of these objects (HAT-P-7b, KOI-13, 127, 183, 188, 190, 196, 225, 254, 428, 607, 609, 684, 774, 1176) probably show TTVs due to a systematic observational effect: long cadence data sampling is regularly shifted transit-by-transit, interacting with the transit light curves, introducing a periodic bias, and leading to a stroboscopic period. For other systems, the activity and rotation of the host star can modulate light curves and explain the observed TTVs. By excluding the systems that were inadequately sampled, showed TTV periods related to the stellar rotation, or turned out to be false positives or suspects, we ended up with seven systems. Three of them (KOI-186, 897, 977) show the weakest stellar rotation features, and these are our best candidates for dynamically induced TTV variations. Conclusions. Those systems with periodic TTVs that we cannot explain with systematics from observation, stellar rotation, activity, or inadequate sampling may be multiple systems or even exomoon hosts.
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