Quick search Find article
Quick search
Find article

EMPIRICAL CONSTRAINTS ON TROJAN COMPANIONS AND ORBITAL ECCENTRICITIES IN 25 TRANSITING EXOPLANETARY SYSTEMS

FREE ISSUE

N. Madhusudhan and Joshua N. Winn

Show affiliations


We present a search for Trojan companions to 25 transiting exoplanets. We use the technique of Ford & Gaudi, in which a difference is sought between the observed transit time and the transit time that is calculated by fitting a two-body Keplerian orbit to the radial-velocity data. This technique is sensitive to the imbalance of mass at the L4/L5 points of the planet-star orbit. No companions were detected above 2σ confidence. The median 2σ upper limit is 56 M , and the most constraining limit is 2.8 M for the case of GJ 436. A similar survey using forthcoming data from the Kepler satellite mission, along with the radial-velocity data that will be needed to confirm transit candidates, will be sensitive to 10-50 M Trojan companions in the habitable zones of their parent stars. As a by-product of this study, we present empirical constraints on the eccentricities of the planetary orbits, including those which have previously been assumed to be circular. The limits on eccentricity are of interest for investigations of tidal circularization and for bounding possible systematic errors in the measured planetary radii and the predicted times of secondary eclipses.


Keywords

celestial mechanics; planetary systems; techniques: photometric; techniques: radial velocities


Dates

Issue 1 (2009 March 1)

Received 2008 July 1, accepted for publication 2008 November 12

Published 2009 March 3



Users also read

What's this?
This innovative new feature generates a list of articles 'also read' by other users based on them reading the original article. Article abstracts citations and references are all considered and weighted accordingly. We hope that this will help you find relevant papers for your research.

  1. Inflating and Deflating Hot Jupiters: Coupled Tidal and Thermal Evolution of Known Transiting Planets
  2. A Search for Additional Planets in Five of the Exoplanetary Systems Studied by the NASA EPOXI Mission

View by subject




Export








Please login to access our web services, or create an account if you don't yet have one.

You must have cookies enabled in your web browser to be able to login.

Username
Password

Forgotten your password? Get a new one here.