TTVFast: AN EFFICIENT AND ACCURATE CODE FOR TRANSIT TIMING INVERSION PROBLEMS
Author(s)
Deck, Katherine M.; Agol, Eric; Holman, Matthew J.; Nesvorný, David
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Transit timing variations (TTVs) have proven to be a powerful technique for confirming Kepler planet candidates, for detecting non-transiting planets, and for constraining the masses and orbital elements of multi-planet systems. These TTV applications often require the numerical integration of orbits for computation of transit times (as well as impact parameters and durations); frequently tens of millions to billions of simulations are required when running statistical analyses of the planetary system properties. We have created a fast code for transit timing computation, TTVFast, which uses a symplectic integrator with a Keplerian interpolator for the calculation of transit times. The speed comes at the expense of accuracy in the calculated times, but the accuracy lost is largely unnecessary, as transit times do not need to be calculated to accuracies significantly smaller than the measurement uncertainties on the times. The time step can be tuned to give sufficient precision for any particular system. We find a speed-up of at least an order of magnitude relative to dynamical integrations with high precision using a Bulirsch-Stoer integrator.
Date issued
2014-06Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics; MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space ResearchJournal
Astrophysical Journal
Publisher
Institute of Physics/American Astronomical Society
Citation
Deck, Katherine M., Eric Agol, Matthew J. Holman, and David Nesvorný. “TTVFast: AN EFFICIENT AND ACCURATE CODE FOR TRANSIT TIMING INVERSION PROBLEMS.” The Astrophysical Journal 787, no. 2 (May 12, 2014): 132. © 2014 American Astronomical Society.
Version: Final published version
ISSN
0004-637X
1538-4357