Related papers: Quantifying the Uncertainty in the Orbits of Extra…
We investigate whether rings around extrasolar planets could be detected from those planets' transit lightcurves. To this end we develop a basic theoretical framework for calculating and interpreting the lightcurves of ringed planet…
We determine the stellar, planetary, and orbital properties of the transiting planetary system HD 209458, through a joint analysis of high-precision radial velocities, photometry, and timing of the secondary eclipse. Of primary interest is…
We quantify uncertainties in the location and magnitude of extreme pressure spots revealed from large scale multi-phase flow simulations of cloud cavitation collapse. We examine clouds containing 500 cavities and quantify uncertainties…
The number of extrasolar planets discovered is increasing, so that more than five thousand exoplanets have been confirmed to date. Now we have an opportunity to test the validity of the laws governing planetary systems and take steps to…
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…
The field of extrasolar planets is still, in comparison with other astrophysical topics, in its infancy. There have been about 300 or so extrasolar planets detected and their detection has been accomplished by various different techniques.…
In the coming years, high contrast imaging surveys are expected to reveal the characteristics of the population of wide-orbit, massive, exoplanets. To date, a handful of wide planetary mass companions are known, but only one such…
The detectability of moons of extra-solar planets is investigated, focussing on the time-of-arrival perturbation technique, a method for detecting moons of pulsar planets, and the photometric transit timing technique, a method for detecting…
I present an homogeneous determination of the physical properties of 14 transiting extrasolar planetary systems for which good data are available. The input quantities for each system are the results of the light curve analyses (Paper 1),…
We consider Markov decision processes (MDPs) in which the transition probabilities and rewards belong to an uncertainty set parametrized by a collection of random variables. The probability distributions for these random parameters are…
Aims. To date, more than 600 multi-planetary systems have been discovered. Due to the limitations of the detection methods, our knowledge of the systems is usually far from complete. In particular, for planetary systems discovered with the…
Measurements of the obliquities in exoplanet systems have revealed some remarkable architectures, some of which are very different from the Solar System. Nearly 200 obliquity measurements have been obtained through observations of the…
When dealing with an orbit determination problem, uncertainties naturally arise from intrinsic errors related to observation devices and approximation models. Following the least squares method and applying approximation schemes such as the…
For centuries, our knowledge of planetary systems and ideas about planet formation were based on a single example, our solar system. During the last thirteen years, the discovery of ~170 planetary systems has ushered in a new era for…
Transit surveys have revealed a significant population of compact multi-planet systems, containing several sub-Neptune-mass planets on close-in, tightly-packed orbits. These systems are thought to have formed through a final phase of giant…
Many exoplanets are discovered in binary star systems in internal or in circumbinary orbits. Whether the planet can be habitable or not depends on the possibility to maintain liquid water on its surface, and therefore on the luminosity of…
Radial velocity surveys for extra-solar planets generally require substantial amounts of large telescope time in order to monitor a sufficient number of stars. Two of the aspects which can limit such surveys are the single-object…
Invariant manifolds of unstable periodic orbits organize the dynamics of chaotic orbits in phase space. They provide insight into the mechanisms of transport and chaotic advection and have important applications in physical situations…
Among the group of extrasolar planets, transiting planets provide a great opportunity to obtain direct measurements for the basic physical properties, such as mass and radius of these objects. These planets are therefore highly important in…
The current orbital geometries of exoplanet systems offer a fossilized record of the systems' dynamical histories. A particularly rich set of dynamical mechanisms is available to exoplanets residing in multi-star systems, which may have…