Related papers: Stellar pulsations interfering with the transit li…
The spectrum of oscillating compact objects can be considerably altered in alternative theories of gravity. In particular, it may be enriched by modes with no counterpart in general relativity, tied to the dynamics of additional degrees of…
In the currently accepted paradigm, dark matter is hypothesized as an explanation of the flat rotation curves of galaxies under the assumption of virialized orbits. The use of millisecond pulsar timing as a probe of Galactic dark matter…
We consider the perturbations of a relativistic star as an initial-value problem. Having discussed the formulation of the problem (the perturbation equations and the appropriate boundary conditions at the centre and the surface of the star)…
We present a model for pulsar filaments - a class of narrow X-ray nebulae misaligned with the proper motion, powered by pulsar-generated $e^\pm$. We suggest that cosmic ray-enhanced turbulence drives pitch-angle scattering and dominates…
We propose that the observed misalignment between extra-solar planets and their hot host stars can be explained by angular momentum transport within the host star. Observations have shown that this misalignment is preferentially around hot…
The impact of unocculted stellar surface heterogeneities in the form of cool spots and hot faculae on the spectrum of a transiting planet has been a daunting problem for the characterization of exoplanet atmospheres. The…
Continued observational characterization of transiting planets that reside in close proximity to their host stars has shown that a substantial fraction of such objects posses orbits that are inclined with respect to the spin axes of their…
The Rossiter-McLaughlin (RM) effect is the distortion of stellar spectral lines that occurs during eclipses or transits, due to stellar rotation. We assess the future prospects for using the RM effect to measure the alignment of planetary…
A millisecond pulsar is a neutron star that has been substantially spun up by accretion from a binary companion. A previously unrecognized factor governing the spin evolution of such pulsars is the crucial effect of non-steady or transient…
Stars hosting hot Jupiters are often observed to have high obliquities, whereas stars with multiple co-planar planets have been seen to have low obliquities. This has been interpreted as evidence that hot-Jupiter formation is linked to…
Spinning neutron stars, when observed as pulsars, are seen to undergo occasional spin-up events known as glitches. Despite several decades of study, the physical mechanisms responsible for glitches are still not well understood, but…
Stellar obliquities, or spin-orbit angles, prevalent in exoplanet systems, can impose important constraints on their formation and evolution histories. Recent studies suggest that primordial misalignments between protoplanetary disks and…
Very high precision seismic space missions such as CoRoT and Kepler provide the means for testing the modelling of transport processes in stellar interiors. For some stars, such as $\delta$ Scuti $\gamma$ Doradus and Be stars, for instance,…
Axisymmetric pulsations of rotating neutron stars can be excited in several scenarios, such as core-collapse, crust and core-quakes and binary mergers and could become detectable either in gravitational waves or high-energy radiation. Here,…
Surface brightness asymmetries are a very common feature of stars. Among other effects they cause a difference between the projected barycentre and photocentre. The evolution of those surface features makes this difference time-dependent.…
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…
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…
General relativistic bending of light dramatically alters the variability of X-ray emission originating from the surfaces of ultramagnetic neutron stars. We construct radiative equilibrium models of such strongly magnetic cooling neutron…
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…
Space missions (CHEOPS, JWST, PLATO) facilitate detailed characterization of exoplanets. This work provides a framework to characterize cloud and climate properties of close-in gas giants via transit depth asymmetries from the optical to…