Related papers: Modeling the Solar System I: Characterization Limi…
Many astronomers have speculated that the solar system contains undiscovered massive planets or a distant stellar companion. The acceleration of the solar system barycenter can constrain the mass and position of the putative companion. In…
A transiting planet exhibits sinusoidal transit-time-variations (TTVs) if perturbed by a companion near a mean-motion-resonance (MMR). We search for sinusoidal TTVs in more than 2600 Kepler candidates, using the publicly available Kepler…
Motivated by the large number of compact extrasolar planetary systems discovered by the Kepler Mission, this paper considers perturbations due to possible additional outer planets. The discovered compact systems sometimes contain multiple…
We compare potential state-of-the-art experiments for detecting Earth-mass planets around main-sequence stars using radial velocities, transits, astrometry, and microlensing. For conventionally-discussed signal-to-noise ratio (S/N)…
We report the conditional occurrences between three planetary types: super-Earths (m sin i $<$ 10 M$_\oplus$, P $<$ 100 days), warm Jupiters (m sin i $>$ 95 $M_\oplus$, 10 $<$ P $<$ 100 days), and cold Jupiters (m sin i $>$ 95 M$_\oplus$, P…
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…
Transit timing variations (TTVs) can provide useful information for systems observed by transit, as they allow us to put constraints on the masses and eccentricities of the observed planets, or even to constrain the existence of…
Multi-planet systems produce a wealth of information for exoplanet science, but our understanding of planetary architectures is incomplete. Probing these systems further will provide insight into orbital architectures and formation…
S-type planets, which orbit one component of multiple-star systems, place strong constraints on the planet formation and evolution models. A notable case study is Kepler-444, a triple-star system whose primary is orbited by five planets…
The nearby ultra-compact multiplanetary system YZ Ceti consists of at least three planets. The orbital period of each planet is the subject of discussion in the literature due to strong aliasing in the radial velocity data. The stellar…
This paper explores the stability of an Earth-like planet orbiting a solar-mass star in the presence of a stellar companion using ~ 400,000 numerical integrations. Given the chaotic nature of the systems being considered, we perform a…
We examined which exo-systems contain moons that may be detected in transit. We numerically modeled transit light curves of Earth-like and giant planets that cointain moons with 0.005--0.4 Earth-mass. The orbital parameters were randomly…
Inferring planetary parameters from transit timing variations is challenging for small exoplanets because their transits may be so weak that determination of individual transit timing is difficult or impossible. We implement a useful…
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…
Transit Timing Variations (TTVs) can provide useful information on compact multi-planetary systems observed by transits, by putting constraints on the masses and eccentricities of the observed planets. This is especially helpful when the…
A key component of characterizing multi-planet exosystems is testing the orbital stability based on the observed properties. Such characterization not only tests the validity of how observations are interpreted but can also place additional…
Torques from a mutually inclined perturber can change a transiting planet's impact parameter, resulting in variations in the transit shape and duration. Detection of and upper limits on changes in impact parameter yield valuable constraints…
Almost half of the stellar systems in the solar neighborhood are made up of multiple stars. In multiple-star systems, planet formation is under the dynamical influence of stellar companions, and the planet occurrence rate is expected to be…
Transmission spectroscopy of Earth-like exoplanets is a potential tool for habitability screening. Transiting planets are present-day "Rosetta Stones" for understanding extrasolar planets because they offer the possibility to characterize…
We analyze data from the Quarter 1-17 Data Release 24 (Q1--Q17 DR24) planet candidate catalog from NASA's Kepler mission, specifically comparing systems with single transiting planets to systems with multiple transiting planets, and…