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Title: TRANSITING PLANETS WITH LSST. II. PERIOD DETECTION OF PLANETS ORBITING 1 M{sub ⊙} HOSTS

Abstract

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will photometrically monitor ∼10{sup 9} stars for 10 years. The resulting light curves can be used to detect transiting exoplanets. In particular, as demonstrated by Lund et al., LSST will probe stellar populations currently undersampled in most exoplanet transit surveys, including out to extragalactic distances. In this paper we test the efficiency of the box-fitting least-squares (BLS) algorithm for accurately recovering the periods of transiting exoplanets using simulated LSST data. We model planets with a range of radii orbiting a solar-mass star at a distance of 7 kpc, with orbital periods ranging from 0.5 to 20 days. We find that standard-cadence LSST observations will be able to reliably recover the periods of Hot Jupiters with periods shorter than ∼3 days; however, it will remain a challenge to confidently distinguish these transiting planets from false positives. At the same time, we find that the LSST deep-drilling cadence is extremely powerful: the BLS algorithm successfully recovers at least 30% of sub-Saturn-size exoplanets with orbital periods as long as 20 days, and a simple BLS power criterion robustly distinguishes ∼98% of these from photometric (i.e., statistical) false positives.

Authors:
 [1]; ;  [2];  [3]
  1. Department of Astrophysics and Planetary Science, Villanova University, Villanova, PA 19085 (United States)
  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235 (United States)
  3. Department of Physics, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015 (United States)
Publication Date:
OSTI Identifier:
22520181
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
Astronomical Journal (Online)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 150; Journal Issue: 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Journal ID: ISSN 1538-3881
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; ALGORITHMS; DETECTION; DIAGRAMS; DISTANCE; EFFICIENCY; LEAST SQUARE FIT; PLANETS; SATELLITES; STAR CLUSTERS; STARS; TELESCOPES; VISIBLE RADIATION

Citation Formats

Jacklin, Savannah, Lund, Michael B., Stassun, Keivan G., and Pepper, Joshua. TRANSITING PLANETS WITH LSST. II. PERIOD DETECTION OF PLANETS ORBITING 1 M{sub ⊙} HOSTS. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.1088/0004-6256/150/1/34.
Jacklin, Savannah, Lund, Michael B., Stassun, Keivan G., & Pepper, Joshua. TRANSITING PLANETS WITH LSST. II. PERIOD DETECTION OF PLANETS ORBITING 1 M{sub ⊙} HOSTS. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-6256/150/1/34
Jacklin, Savannah, Lund, Michael B., Stassun, Keivan G., and Pepper, Joshua. 2015. "TRANSITING PLANETS WITH LSST. II. PERIOD DETECTION OF PLANETS ORBITING 1 M{sub ⊙} HOSTS". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-6256/150/1/34.
@article{osti_22520181,
title = {TRANSITING PLANETS WITH LSST. II. PERIOD DETECTION OF PLANETS ORBITING 1 M{sub ⊙} HOSTS},
author = {Jacklin, Savannah and Lund, Michael B. and Stassun, Keivan G. and Pepper, Joshua},
abstractNote = {The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will photometrically monitor ∼10{sup 9} stars for 10 years. The resulting light curves can be used to detect transiting exoplanets. In particular, as demonstrated by Lund et al., LSST will probe stellar populations currently undersampled in most exoplanet transit surveys, including out to extragalactic distances. In this paper we test the efficiency of the box-fitting least-squares (BLS) algorithm for accurately recovering the periods of transiting exoplanets using simulated LSST data. We model planets with a range of radii orbiting a solar-mass star at a distance of 7 kpc, with orbital periods ranging from 0.5 to 20 days. We find that standard-cadence LSST observations will be able to reliably recover the periods of Hot Jupiters with periods shorter than ∼3 days; however, it will remain a challenge to confidently distinguish these transiting planets from false positives. At the same time, we find that the LSST deep-drilling cadence is extremely powerful: the BLS algorithm successfully recovers at least 30% of sub-Saturn-size exoplanets with orbital periods as long as 20 days, and a simple BLS power criterion robustly distinguishes ∼98% of these from photometric (i.e., statistical) false positives.},
doi = {10.1088/0004-6256/150/1/34},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22520181}, journal = {Astronomical Journal (Online)},
issn = {1538-3881},
number = 1,
volume = 150,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Jul 15 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Wed Jul 15 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}