Published in

Oxford University Press (OUP), Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 3(488), p. 4181-4194, 2019

DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stz1941

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Higher order harmonics in the light curves of eccentric planetary systems

Journal article published in 2019 by Zephyr Penoyre ORCID, Emily Sandford ORCID
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.

Full text: Unavailable

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Postprint: archiving allowed
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Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

ABSTRACTAs a planet orbits, it causes periodic modulations in the light curve of its host star. Due to the combined effects of the planet raising tides on the host star, relativistic beaming of the starlight, and reflection of light off the planet’s surface, these modulations occur at the planet’s orbital frequency, as well as integer multiples of this frequency. In particular, planets on eccentric orbits induce third and higher order harmonics in the stellar light curve which cannot be explained by circular-orbit models. Even at moderate eccentricities, such as those typical of Solar system planets, these harmonics are detectable in current and future photometric data. We present an analysis of the harmonics caused by tides, beaming, and reflection in eccentric planetary systems. We explore the dependence of these signals on the parameters of the system, and we discuss prospects for current and future observations of these signals, particularly by the NASA TESS mission. Finally, we present publicly available code for computation of light curves with tidal, beaming, and reflection signals, oot.