Related papers: Eclipse timing variations to detect possible Troja…
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…
Multi-planet systems are a perfect laboratory for constraining planetary formation models. A few of these systems present planets that come very close to mean motion resonance, potentially leading to significant transit-timing variations…
Circumbinary planets are generally more likely to transit than equivalent single-star planets, but practically the geometry and orbital dynamics of circumbinary planets make the chance of observing a transit inherently time-dependent. In…
The field of exoplanetary science has diversified rapidly over recent years as the field has progressed from exoplanet detection to exoplanet characterization. For those planets known to transit, the primary transit and secondary eclipse…
The observed eclipsing time variations in post-common-envelope binaries (PCEBs) can be interpreted as potential evidence for massive Jupiter-like planets, or as a result of magnetic activity, leading to quasi-periodic changes in the…
Transiting exoplanets provide access to data to study the mass-radius relation and internal structure of extrasolar planets. Long-period transiting planets allow insight into planetary environments similar to the Solar System where, in…
The mid-transit times of an exoplanet may be non-periodic. The variations in the timing of the transits with respect to a single period, that is, the transit timing variations (TTVs), can sometimes be attributed to perturbations by other…
Tidal forces are important for understanding how close binary stars and compact exoplanetary systems form and evolve. However, tides are difficult to model and significant uncertainties exist about the strength of tides. Here, we…
Transit Timing Variations (TTVs) can provide useful information for systems observed by transit, by putting constraints on the masses and eccentricities of the observed planets, or even constrain the existence of non-transiting companions.…
Apparent period variations detected in several eclipsing, close-compact binaries are frequently interpreted as being caused by circumbinary giant planets. This interpretation raises the question of the origin of the potential planets that…
A planet's orbital orientation relative to an observer's line of sight determines the chord length for a transiting planet, i.e., the projected distance a transiting planet travels across the stellar disc. For a given circular orbit, the…
We extract Transit Timing Variation (TTV) signals for 12 pairs of transiting planet candidates that are near first-order Mean Motion Resonances (MMR), using publicly available Kepler light curves (Q0-Q14). These pairs show significant…
(Abridged) In planetary systems with two or more giant planets, dynamical instabilities can lead to collisions or ejections through strong planet--planet scattering. Previous studies for simple initial configurations with two equal-mass…
The TrES-2 system harbors one planet which was discovered with the transit technique. In this work we investigate the dynamical behavior of possible additional, lower-mass planets. We identify the regions where such planets can move on…
Transiting planet discoveries have yielded a plethora of information regarding the internal structure and atmospheres of extra-solar planets. These discoveries have been restricted to the low-periastron distance regime due to the bias…
We analyze the deviations of transit times from a linear ephemeris for the Kepler Objects of Interest (KOI) through Quarter six (Q6) of science data. We conduct two statistical tests for all KOIs and a related statistical test for all pairs…
Astrophysical false positives due to stellar eclipsing binaries pose one of the greatest challenges to ground-based surveys for transiting Hot Jupiters. We have used known properties of multiple star systems and Hot Jupiter systems to…
Doppler planet searches have discovered that giant planets follow orbits with a wide range of orbital eccentricities, revolutionizing theories of planet formation. The discovery of hundreds of exoplanet candidates by NASA's Kepler mission…
We present an efficient analytical method to predict the maximum transit timing variations of a circumbinary exoplanet, given some basic parameters of the host binary. We derive an analytical model giving limits on the potential location of…
We present a catalog of precise eclipse times and analysis of third body signals among 1279 close binaries in the latest Kepler Eclipsing Binary Catalog. For these short period binaries, Kepler's 30 minute exposure time causes significant…