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Register a new userAccurate, Empirical Radii and Masses of Planets and their Host Stars with Gaia Parallaxes
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Keivan G. Stassun
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We present empirical measurements of the radii of 116 stars that host transiting planets. These radii are determined using only direct observables-the bolometric flux at Earth, the effective temperature, and the parallax provided by the Gaia first data release-and thus are virtually model independent, extinction being the only free parameter. We also determine each stars mass using our newly determined radius and the stellar density, itself a virtually model independent quantity from previously published transit analyses. These stellar radii and masses are in turn used to redetermine the transiting planet radii and masses, again using only direct observables. The median uncertainties on the stellar radii and masses are ~8% and ~30%, respectively, and the resulting uncertainties on the planet radii and masses are ~9% and ~22%, respectively. These accuracies are generally larger than previously published model-dependent precisions of ~5% and ~6% on the planet radii and masses, respectively, but the newly determined values are purely empirical. We additionally report radii for 242 stars hosting radial-velocity (non-transiting) planets, with median achieved accuracy of ~2%. Using our empirical stellar masses we verify that the majority of putative retired A stars in the sample are indeed more massive than ~1.2 Msun. Most importantly, the bolometric fluxes and angular radii reported here for a total of 498 planet host stars-with median accuracies of 1.7% and 1.8%, respectively-serve as a fundamental dataset to permit the re-determination of transiting planet radii and masses with the Gaia second data release to ~3% and ~5% accuracy, better than currently published precisions, and determined in an entirely empirical fashion.
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In order to understand the exoplanet, you need to understand its parent star. Astrophysical parameters of extrasolar planets are directly and indirectly dependent on the properties of their respective host stars. These host stars are very frequently the only visible component in the systems. This book describes our work in the field of characterization of exoplanet host stars using interferometry to determine angular diameters, trigonometric parallax to determine physical radii, and SED fitting to determine effective temperatures and luminosities. The interferometry data are based on our decade-long survey using the CHARA Array. We describe our methods and give an update on the status of the field, including a table with the astrophysical properties of all stars with high-precision interferometric diameters out to 150 pc (status Nov 2016). In addition, we elaborate in more detail on a number of particularly significant or important exoplanet systems, particularly with respect to (1) insights gained from transiting exoplanets, (2) the determination of system habitable zones, and (3) the discrepancy between directly determined and model-based stellar radii. Finally, we discuss current and future work including the calibration of semi-empirical methods based on interferometric data.
The interaction between the magnetic fields of late-type stars and their close-by planets may produce stellar flares as observed in active binary systems. However, in spite of several claims, conclusive evidence is still lacking. We estimate the magnetic energy available in the interaction using analytical models to provide an upper bound to the expected flare energy. We investigate three different mechanisms leading to magnetic energy release. The first two can release an energy up to $(0.2-1.2) B^{2}_{0} R^{3}/mu$, where $B_{0}$ is the surface field of the star, $R$ its radius, and $mu$ the magnetic permeability of the plasma. They operate in young active stars whose coronae have closed magnetic field lines up to the distance of their close-by planets that can trigger the energy release. The third mechanism operates in weakly or moderately active stars having a coronal field with predominantly open field lines at the distance of their planets. The released energy is of the order of $(0.002-0.1) B^{2}_{0} R^{3}/mu$ and depends on the ratio of the planetary to the stellar fields, thus allowing an indirect measurement of the former when the latter is known. We compute the released energy for different separations of the planet and different stellar parameters finding the conditions for the operation of the proposed mechanisms. An application to eight selected systems is presented. The computed energies and dissipation timescales are in agreement with flare observations in the eccentric system HD 17156 and in the circular systems HD 189733 and HD 179949. This kind of star-planet interaction can be unambiguously identified by the higher flaring frequency expected close to periastron in eccentric systems.
Using the Spitzer Space Telescope, we observed a transit at 3.6um of KELT-11b (Pepper et al. 2017). We also observed three partial transits from the ground. We simultaneously fit these observations, ground-based photometry from Pepper et al. (2017), radial velocity data from Pepper et al. (2017), and an SED model utilizing catalog magnitudes and the Hipparcos parallax to the system. The only significant difference between our results and Pepper et al. (2017) is that we find the orbital period is shorter by 37 seconds, $4.73610pm0.00003$ vs. $4.73653pm0.00006$ days, and we measure a transit center time of BJD_TDB $2457483.4310pm0.0007$, which is 42 minutes earlier than predicted. Using our new photometry, we measure the density of the star KELT-11 to 4%. By combining the parallax and catalog magnitudes of the system, we are able to measure KELT-11bs radius essentially empirically. Coupled with the stellar density, this gives a parallactic mass and radius of $1.8,{rm M}_odot$ and $2.9,{rm R}_odot$, which are each approximately $1,sigma$ higher than the adopted model-estimated mass and radius. If we conduct the same fit using the expected parallax uncertainty from the final Gaia data release, this difference increases to $4,sigma$. This demonstrates the role that precise Gaia parallaxes, coupled with simultaneous photometric, RV, and SED fitting, can play in determining stellar and planetary parameters. With high precision photometry of transiting planets and high precision Gaia parallaxes, the parallactic mass and radius uncertainties of stars become 1% and 3%, respectively. TESS is expected to discover 60 to 80 systems where these measurements will be possible. These parallactic mass and radius measurements have uncertainties small enough that they may provide observational input into the stellar models themselves.
We combine equation of state of dense matter up to twice nuclear saturation density ($n_{rm sat}=0.16, text{fm}^{-3}$) obtained using chiral effective field theory ($chi$EFT), and recent observations of neutron stars to gain insights about the high-density matter encountered in their cores. A key element in our study is the recent Bayesian analysis of correlated EFT truncation errors based on order-by-order calculations up to next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order in the $chi$EFT expansion. We refine the bounds on the maximum mass imposed by causality at high densities, and provide stringent limits on the maximum and minimum radii of $sim1.4,{rm M}_{odot}$ and $sim2.0,{rm M}_{odot}$ stars. Including $chi$EFT predictions from $n_{rm sat}$ to $2,n_{rm sat}$ reduces the permitted ranges of the radius of a $1.4,{rm M}_{odot}$ star, $R_{1.4}$, by $sim3.5, text{km}$. If observations indicate $R_{1.4}<11.2, text{km}$, our study implies that either the squared speed of sound $c^2_{s}>1/2$ for densities above $2,n_{rm sat}$, or that $chi$EFT breaks down below $2,n_{rm sat}$. We also comment on the nature of the secondary compact object in GW190814 with mass $simeq 2.6,{rm M}_{odot}$, and discuss the implications of massive neutron stars $>2.1 ,{rm M}_{odot},(2.6,{rm M}_{odot})$ in future radio and gravitational-wave searches. Some form of strongly interacting matter with $c^2_{s}>0.35, (0.55)$ must be realized in the cores of such massive neutron stars. In the absence of phase transitions below $2,n_{rm sat}$, the small tidal deformability inferred from GW170817 lends support for the relatively small pressure predicted by $chi$EFT for the baryon density $n_{rm B}$ in the range $1-2,n_{rm sat}$. Together they imply that the rapid stiffening required to support a high maximum mass should occur only when $n_{rm B} gtrsim 1.5-1.8,n_{rm sat}$.
Young stars and planets both grow by accreting material from the proto-stellar disks. Planetary structure and formation models assume a common origin of the building blocks, yet, thus far, there is no direct conclusive observational evidence correlating the composition of rocky planets to their host stars. Here we present evidence of a chemical link between rocky planets and their host stars. The iron-mass fraction of the most precisely characterized rocky planets is compared to that of their building blocks, as inferred from the atmospheric composition of their host stars. We find a clear and statistically significant correlation between the two. We also find that this correlation is not one-to-one, owing to the disk-chemistry and planet formation processes. Therefore rocky planet composition depends on the chemical composition of the proto-planetary disk and contains signatures about planet formation processes.
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