Related papers: Eclipse timing the Milky Way's gravitational poten…
Context. Among the main effects that the Milky Way exerts in binary systems, the Galactic tide is the only one that is not probabilistic and can be deduced from a potential. Therefore, it is possible to perform an analysis of the global…
The assembly of stellar-dominated cores in elliptical galaxies is key to understanding how cosmic structures evolved. Gravitational lensing offers unique insights into the nature of their stars. We report the discovery of the smallest known…
Gravitational time delays, observed in strong lens systems where the variable background source is multiply-imaged by a massive galaxy in the foreground, provide direct measurements of cosmological distance that are very complementary to…
Deriving the expansion history of the Universe is a major goal of modern cosmology. To date, the most accurate measurements have been obtained with Type Ia Supernovae and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations, providing evidence for the existence of…
The expected distributions of eclipse-depth versus period for eclipsing binaries of different luminosities are derived from large-scale population synthesis experiments. Using the rapid Hurley et al. BSE binary evolution code, we have…
The advent of datasets of stars in the Milky Way with six-dimensional phase-space information makes it possible to construct empirically the distribution function (DF). Here, we show that the accelerations can be uniquely determined from…
We present a new geometrical method for measuring the distance to the Galactic center (R_0) by solving for the Keplerian orbit of individual stars bound to the black hole associated with the Sgr A* from radial velocity and proper motion…
It is shown herein that planets with eccentric orbits are more likely to transit than circularly orbiting planets with the same semimajor axis by a factor of (1-e^2)^{-1}. If the orbital parameters of discovered transiting planets are…
High precision lightcurves combined with eclipse mapping techniques can reveal the horizontal and vertical structure of a planet's thermal emission and the dynamics of hot Jupiters. Someday, they even may reveal the surface maps of rocky…
Short-period exoplanets may exhibit orbital precession driven by several different processes, including tidal interactions with their host stars and secular interactions with additional planets. This motion manifests as periodic shifts in…
Analysis of transit times in exoplanetary systems accurately provides an instantaneous orbital period, $P(t)$, of their member planets. A long-term monitoring of those transiting planetary systems puts limits on the variability of $P(t)$,…
Tidal dissipation in binary systems is the primary source for synchronization and circularization of the objects in the system. The efficiency of the dissipation of tidal energy inside stars or planets results in significant changes in…
We show how the combination of observations related to strong gravitational lensing and stellar dynamics in ellipticals offers a new way to measure the cosmological matter and dark-energy density parameters. A gravitational lensing estimate…
Detached eclipsing binary stars (DEBS) are currently the best source of accurate and precise fundamental stellar parameters. This makes DEBS crucial targets for constraining the impact of various physical processes on stellar structure and…
Einstein's weak equivalence principle (EEP) can be tested through the arrival time delay between photons with different frequencies. Assuming that the arrival time delay is solely caused by the gravitational potential of the Milky Way, we…
It may be possible to construct a laser interferometer gravitational wave antenna in space with $h_{rms}\sim 10^{-27}$ at $ f\sim 0.1{\rm Hz}$ in this century. We show possible specification of this antenna which we call DECIGO. Using this…
The frequencies and phases of emission from extra-solar sources measured by Earth-bound observers are modulated by the motions of the observer with respect to the source, and through relativistic effects. These modulations depend critically…
The length of the asteroseismic timeseries obtained from the Kepler satellite analysed here span 19 months. Kepler provides the longest continuous timeseries currently available, which calls for a study of the influence of the increased…
Limb darkening laws are convenient parameterizations of the stellar intensity center-to-limb variation, and their use is ubiquitous in eclipse and transit modeling. But they are not "laws" in any sense -- they are simple approximations of…
Radial velocity surveys are beginning to reach the time baselines required to detect Jupiter analogs, as well as sub-Saturn mass planets in close orbits. Therefore it is important to understand the sensitivity of these surveys at long…