Related papers: Analytic approximations for transit light curve ob…
We present the first exact analytical solutions for exoplanet transit light curves under arbitrary real power-law limb darkening, $I(\mu) = I_0\mu^\alpha$ with $\alpha > -2$, removing the two-decade restriction to integer-polynomial forms.…
[Abridged] Distant stars and planets will remain spatially unresolved for the foreseeable future. It is nonetheless possible to infer aspects of their brightness markings and viewing geometries by analyzing disk-integrated rotational and…
The discovery of transiting extrasolar planets has enabled us a number of interesting stduies. Transit photometry reveals the radius and the orbital inclination of transiting planets, and thereby we can learn the true mass and the density…
Several studies have shown that stellar activity features, such as occulted and non-occulted starspots, can affect the measurement of transit parameters biasing studies of transit timing variations and transmission spectra. We present…
The orbital parameters of extra-solar planets have a significant impact on the probability that the planet will transit the host star. This was recently demonstrated by the transit detection of HD 17156b whose favourable eccentricity and…
A simple transit model is described along with tests of this model against published results for 4 exoplanet systems (Kepler-1, 2, 8, and 77). Data from the Kepler mission are used. The Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method is applied to…
In this work, we investigate the accuracy of various approximate expressions for the transit duration of a detached binary against the exact solution, found through solving a quartic equation. Additionally, a new concise approximation is…
I introduce batman, a Python package for modeling exoplanet transit light curves. The batman package supports calculation of light curves for any radially symmetric stellar limb darkening law, using a new integration algorithm for models…
We present a theoretical analysis of the optical light curves (LCs) for short-period high-mass transiting extrasolar planet systems. Our method considers the primary transit, the secondary eclipse, and the overall phase shape of the LC…
Characterization of microlensing planets requires modeling of observed light curves including many parameters. Studying the dependency of the pattern of light curves on the lensing parameters and the correlations between the parameters is…
The radial velocity technique is currently used to classify transiting objects. While capable of identifying grazing binary eclipses, this technique cannot reliably identify blends, a chance overlap of a faint background eclipsing binary…
Stellar activity features such as spots can create complications in determining planetary parameters through spectroscopic and photometric observations. The overlap of a transiting planet and a stellar spot, for instance, can produce…
Stellar limb darkening is the observed variation in brightness of a star between its centre and edge (or limb) when viewed in the plane of the sky. Stellar brightness is maximal at the centre and then decreases radially and monotonically…
We present photometry of 13 transits of XO-3b, a massive transiting planet on an eccentric orbit. Previous data led to two inconsistent estimates of the planetary radius. Our data strongly favor the smaller radius, with increased precision:…
Planets orbiting very close to their host stars have been found, some of them on the verge of tidal disruption. The ellipsoidal shape of these planets can significantly differ from a sphere, which modifies the transit light curves. Here we…
Multi-wavelength transit and secondary-eclipse light-curve observations are some of the most powerful techniques to probe the thermo-chemical properties of exoplanets. Although the large planet-to-star brightness contrast and few available…
Although transit spectroscopy is a powerful method for studying the composition, thermal properties and dynamics of exoplanet atmospheres, only a few transiting terrestrial exoplanets will be close enough to allow significant transit…
Transits of bright stars offer a unique opportunity to study detailed properties of extrasolar planets that cannot be determined through radial-velocity observations. We propose a new technique to find such systems using all-sky…
A significant fraction of an exoplanet transit model evaluation time is spent calculating projected distances between the planet and its host star. This is a relatively fast operation for a circular orbit, but slower for an eccentric one.…
Future high precision photometric measurements of transiting extrasolar planets promise to tell us much about the nature of these systems. We examine how atmospheric lensing and (projected) planet oblateness/ellipticity modify transit light…