CHROMOSPHERIC EMISSION OF PLANET CANDIDATE HOST STARS: A WAY TO IDENTIFY FALSE POSITIVES
- Department of Geoscience, Aarhus University, Høegh-Guldbergs Gade 2, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark)
- Stellar Astrophysics Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 120, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark)
- INAF—Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania, via S.Sofia 78, I-95123 Catania (Italy)
It has been hypothesized that the presence of closely orbiting giant planets is associated with enhanced chromospheric emission of their host stars. The main cause for such a relation would likely be enhanced dynamo action induced by the planet. We present measurements of chromospheric emission in 234 planet candidate systems from the Kepler mission. This ensemble includes 37 systems with giant-planet candidates, which show a clear emission enhancement. The enhancement, however, disappears when systems that are also identified as eclipsing binary candidates are removed from the ensemble. This suggests that a large fraction of the giant-planet candidate systems with chromospheric emission stronger than the Sun are not giant-planet systems, but false positives. Such false-positive systems could be tidally interacting binaries with strong chromospheric emission. This hypothesis is supported by an analysis of 188 eclipsing binary candidates that show increasing chromospheric emission as function of decreasing orbital period.
- OSTI ID:
- 22654203
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 830, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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