Revisiting Kepler Transiting Systems: Unvetting Planets and Constraining Relationships among Harmonics in Phase Curves
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Niraula_2022_AJ_163_172.pdf
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Published version
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Author(s)
Niraula, Prajwal
Shporer, Avi
Wong, Ian
de Wit, Julien
Date Issued
2022
Journal
Astronomical Journal
Publisher
American Astronomical Society
Citation
Niraula, Prajwal, Shporer, Avi, Wong, Ian and de Wit, Julien. 2022. "Revisiting Kepler Transiting Systems: Unvetting Planets and Constraining Relationships among Harmonics in Phase Curves." Astronomical Journal, 163 (4).
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Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Abstract
Space-based photometric missions widely use statistical validation tools for vetting transiting planetary candidates, particularly when other traditional methods of planet confirmation are unviable. In this paper, we refute the planetary nature of three previously validated planets—Kepler-854 b, Kepler-840 b, and Kepler-699 b—and possibly a fourth, Kepler-747 b, using updated stellar parameters from Gaia and phase-curve analysis. In all four cases, the inferred physical radii rule out their planetary nature given the stellar radiation the companions receive. For Kepler-854 b, the mass derived from the host star’s ellipsoidal variation, which had not been part of the original vetting procedure, similarly points to a nonplanetary value. To contextualize our understanding of the phase curve for stellar-mass companions in particular and extend our understanding of high-order harmonics, we examine Kepler eclipsing binaries with periods between 1.5 and 10 days. Using a sample of 20 systems, we report a strong power-law relation between the second cosine harmonic of the phase-curve signal and the higher cosine harmonics, which supports the hypothesis that those signals arise from the tidal interaction between the binary components. We find that the ratio between the second- and third-harmonic amplitudes is 2.24 ± 0.48, in good agreement with the expected value of 2.4 from the classical formalism for the ellipsoidal distortion.
Space-based photometric missions widely use statistical validation tools for vetting transiting planetary candidates, particularly when other traditional methods of planet confirmation are unviable. In this paper, we refute the planetary nature of three previously validated planets—Kepler-854 b, Kepler-840 b, and Kepler-699 b—and possibly a fourth, Kepler-747 b, using updated stellar parameters from Gaia and phase-curve analysis. In all four cases, the inferred physical radii rule out their planetary nature given the stellar radiation the companions receive. For Kepler-854 b, the mass derived from the host star’s ellipsoidal variation, which had not been part of the original vetting procedure, similarly points to a nonplanetary value. To contextualize our understanding of the phase curve for stellar-mass companions in particular and extend our understanding of high-order harmonics, we examine Kepler eclipsing binaries with periods between 1.5 and 10 days. Using a sample of 20 systems, we report a strong power-law relation between the second cosine harmonic of the phase-curve signal and the higher cosine harmonics, which supports the hypothesis that those signals arise from the tidal interaction between the binary components. We find that the ratio between the second- and third-harmonic amplitudes is 2.24 ± 0.48, in good agreement with the expected value of 2.4 from the classical formalism for the ellipsoidal distortion.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/AC4F64
