Related papers: Density discrepancy between transit-timing variati…
The study of exoplanets at different evolutionary stages can shed light on their formation, migration, and evolution. The determination of exoplanet properties depends on the properties of their host stars. It is therefore important to…
Future generations of precise radial velocity (RV) surveys aim to achieve sensitivity sufficient to detect Earth mass planets orbiting in their stars' habitable zones. A major obstacle to this goal is astrophysical radial velocity noise…
Astrometric and radial-velocity planet detections track very similar motions, and one generally expects that the statistical properties of the detections would also be similar after they are scaled to the signal-to-noise ratio of the…
The inhibition of small-scale convection in the Sun dominates the long-term radial velocity (RV) variability: it therefore has a critical effect on light exoplanet detectability using RV techniques. We here extend our previous analysis of…
Transiting planets around stars are discovered mostly through photometric surveys. Unlike radial velocity surveys, photometric surveys do not tend to target slow rotators, inactive or metal-rich stars. Nevertheless, we suspect that…
Exoplanet Transit Timing Variations (TTVs) caused by gravitational forces between planets can be used to determine planetary masses and orbital parameters. Most of the observed TTVs are small and sinusoidal in time, leading to degeneracies…
The chemical composition of stars that have orbiting planets provides important clues about the frequency, architecture, and composition of exoplanet systems. We explore the possibility that stars from different galactic populations that…
Stellar activity induces apparent radial velocity (RV) variations in late-type main-sequence stars that may hamper the detection of low-mass planets and the measurement of their mass. We use simultaneous measurements of the active planet…
Motivated by the order-of-magnitude difference in the frequency of giant planets orbiting M dwarfs inferred by microlensing and radial velocity (RV) surveys, we present a method for comparing the statistical constraints on exoplanet…
The chemical conditions in the planet forming regions of protoplanetary discs remain difficult to observe directly. Gas accreting from the disc on to the star provides a way to measure the elemental abundances because even refractory…
Transition disks have dust-depleted inner regions and may represent an intermediate step of an on-going disk dispersal process, where planet formation is probably in progress. Recent millimetre observations of transition disks reveal…
The radial velocity (RV) technique is a powerful tool for detecting extrasolar planets and deriving mass detection limits that are useful for constraining planet pulsations and formation models. Detection limit methods must take into…
This work presents a homogeneous determination of lithium abundances in a large sample of giant-planet hosting stars (N=117), and a control sample of disk stars without detected planets (N=145). The lithium abundances were derived using a…
The effect of stellar activity on RV appears to be a limiting factor in detecting Earth-mass planets in the habitable zone of a star similar to the Sun in spectral type and activity level. It is crucial to estimate if this conclusion remain…
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.…
Radial velocity (RV) detection of planets is hampered by astrophysical processes on the surfaces of stars that induce a stochastic signal, or "jitter", which can drown out or even mimic planetary signals. Here, we empirically and carefully…
The composition of rocky planets is strongly driven by the primordial materials in the protoplanetary disk, which can be inferred from the abundances of the host star. Understanding this compositional link is crucial for characterizing…
We present new ways to identify single and multiple moons around extrasolar planets using planetary transit timing variations (TTVs) and transit duration variations (TDVs). For planets with one moon, measurements from successive transits…
Unlike hot Jupiters or other gas giants, super-Earths are expected to have a wide variety of compositions, ranging from terrestrial bodies like our own to more gaseous planets like Neptune. Observations of transiting systems, which allow us…
We study the kinematics of the Galactic thin and thick disk populations using stars from the RAVE survey's second data release together with distance estimates from Breddels et al. (2009). The velocity distribution exhibits the expected…