Related papers: An iterative filter to reconstruct planetary trans…
Intrinsic stellar variability can hinder the detection of shallow transits, particularly in space-based data. Therefore, this variability has to be filtered out before running the transit search. Unfortunately, filtering out the low…
Context. Transit detection algorithms are mathematical tools used for detecting planets in the photometric data of transit surveys. In this work we study their application to space-based surveys. Aims: Space missions are exploring the…
We have developed a new method to improve the transit detection of Earth-sized planets in front of solar-like stars by fitting stellar microvariability by means of a spot model. A large Monte Carlo numerical experiment has been designed to…
This thesis focuses on the detection of extrasolar planets via the transit method, and more specifically addresses issues relevant to the preparation of upcoming space missions such as CoRoT, Kepler, Eddington, aiming to detect terrestrial…
Surveys for exoplanetary transits are usually limited not by photon noise but rather by the amount of red noise in their data. In particular, although the CoRoT spacebased survey data are being carefully scrutinized, significant new sources…
Variations related to stellar activity and correlated noise can prevent the detections of low-amplitude signals in radial velocity data if not accounted for. This can be seen as the greatest obstacle in detecting Earth-like planets orbiting…
The detection of planetary transits in the light curves of active stars, featuring correlated noise in the form of stellar variability, remains a challenge. Depending on the noise characteristics, we show that the traditional technique that…
We present a comparison of four methods of filtering solar-like variability to increase the efficiency of detection of Earth-like planetary transits by means of box-shaped transit finder algorithms. Two of these filtering methods are the…
Context. Detecting regular dips in the light curve of a star is an easy way to detect the presence of an orbiting planet. COROT is a Franco-European mission launched at the end of 2006, and one of its main objectives is to detect planetary…
We present MCDA, a modification of the CoRoT detrend algorithm (CDA) suitable to detrend chromatic light curves. By means of robust statistics and better handling of short term variability, the implementation decreases the systematic light…
We study the statistical characteristics of a box-fitting algorithm to analyze stellar photometric time series in the search for periodic transits by extrasolar planets. The algorithm searches for signals characterized by a periodic…
The problem of denoising a one-dimensional signal possessing varying degrees of smoothness is ubiquitous in time-domain astronomy and astronomical spectroscopy. For example, in the time domain, an astronomical object may exhibit a smoothly…
The detection of planetary transits in stellar photometric light-curves is poised to become the main method for finding substantial numbers of terrestrial planets. The French-European mission COROT (foreseen for launch in 2005) will perform…
The detection of transiting exoplanets in time-series photometry requires the removal or modeling of instrumental and stellar noise. While instrumental systematics can be reduced using methods such as pixel level decorrelation, removing…
CONTEXT. The exquisite precision of the space-based photometric surveys and the unavoidable presence of instrumental systematics and intrinsic stellar variability call for the development of sophisticated methods that separate these signal…
(Abridged) Space missions to search for exo-planets via the transit method, such as COROT, Eddington and Kepler, will need to address problems associated with the automated and efficient detection of planetary transits in light curves…
The pioneer space mission for photometric exoplanet searches, CoRoT, steadily monitors about 12000 stars in each of its fields of view. Transit detection algorithms are applied to derive promising planetary candidates, which are then…
Light curves produced by wide-field exoplanet transit surveys such as CoRoT, Kepler, and TESS are affected by sensor-wide systematic noise which is correlated both spatiotemporally and with other instrumental parameters such as photometric…
We present additional tests of our algorithm aimed at filtering out systematics due to data reduction and instrumental imperfections in time series obtained by ensemble photometry. Signal detection efficiency is demonstrated, and a method…
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…