113 research outputs found
A Technique to Derive Improved Proper Motions for Kepler Objects of Interest
We outline an approach yielding proper motions with higher precision than
exists in present catalogs for a sample of stars in the Kepler field. To
increase proper motion precision we combine first moment centroids of Kepler
pixel data from a single Season with existing catalog positions and proper
motions. We use this astrometry to produce improved reduced proper motion
diagrams, analogous to a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, for stars identified as
Kepler Objects of Interest. The more precise the relative proper motions, the
better the discrimination between stellar luminosity classes. With UCAC4 and
PPMXL epoch 2000 positions (and proper motions from those catalogs as
quasi-bayesian priors) astrometry for a single test Channel (21) and Season (0)
spanning two years yields proper motions with an average per-coordinate proper
motion error of 1.0 millisecond of arc per year, over a factor of three better
than existing catalogs. We apply a mapping between a reduced proper motion
diagram and an HR diagram, both constructed using HST parallaxes and proper
motions, to estimate Kepler Object of Interest K-band absolute magnitudes. The
techniques discussed apply to any future small-field astrometry as well as the
rest of the Kepler field.Comment: Accepted to The Astronomical Journal 15 August 201
Absence of a metallicity effect for ultra-short-period planets
Ultra-short-period (USP) planets are a newly recognized class of planets with
periods shorter than one day and radii smaller than about 2 Earth radii. It has
been proposed that USP planets are the solid cores of hot Jupiters that lost
their gaseous envelopes due to photo-evaporation or Roche lobe overflow. We
test this hypothesis by asking whether USP planets are associated with
metal-rich stars, as has long been observed for hot Jupiters. We find the
metallicity distributions of USP-planet and hot-Jupiter hosts to be
significantly different (), based on Keck spectroscopy of
Kepler stars. Evidently, the sample of USP planets is not dominated by the
evaporated cores of hot Jupiters. The metallicity distribution of stars with
USP planets is indistinguishable from that of stars with short-period planets
with sizes between 2--4~. Thus it remains possible that the USP
planets are the solid cores of formerly gaseous planets smaller than Neptune.Comment: AJ, in pres
The Payne: Self-consistent ab initio Fitting of Stellar Spectra
We present The Payne, a general method for the precise and simultaneous determination of numerous stellar labels from observed spectra, based on fitting physical spectral models. The Payne combines a number of important methodological aspects: it exploits the information from much of the available spectral range; it fits all labels (stellar parameters and elemental abundances) simultaneously; it uses spectral models, where the structure of the atmosphere and the radiative transport are consistently calculated to reflect the stellar labels. At its core The Payne has an approach to accurate and precise interpolation and prediction of the spectrum in high-dimensional label space that is flexible and robust, yet based on only a moderate number of ab initio models ( for 25 labels). With a simple neural-net-like functional form and a suitable choice of training labels, this interpolation yields a spectral flux prediction good to 10-3 rms across a wide range of T eff and (including dwarfs and giants). We illustrate the power of this approach by applying it to the APOGEE DR14 data set, drawing on Kurucz models with recently improved line lists: without recalibration, we obtain physically sensible stellar parameters as well as 15 elemental abundances that appear to be more precise than the published APOGEE DR14 values. In short, The Payne is an approach that for the first time combines all these key ingredients, necessary for progress toward optimal modeling of survey spectra; and it leads to both precise and accurate estimates of stellar labels, based on physical models and without "recalibration." Both the codes and catalog are made publicly available online.NASA Headquarters under the NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship Program—
Grant NNX15AR83H for this project. C.C. acknowledges support from NASA grant NNX13AI46G, NSF grant AST1313280, and the Packard Foundation. H.W.R.ʼs research contribution is supported by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP 7) ERC grant Agreement No. [321035
MINESweeper: Spectrophotometric Modeling of Stars in the Gaia Era
We present MINESweeper, a tool to measure stellar parameters by jointly
fitting observed spectra and broadband photometry to model isochrones and
spectral libraries. This approach enables the measurement of spectrophotometric
distances, in addition to stellar parameters such as Teff, log(g), [Fe/H],
[a/Fe], and radial velocity. MINESweeper employs a Bayesian framework and can
easily incorporate a variety of priors, including Gaia parallaxes. Mock data
are fit in order to demonstrate how the precision of derived parameters depends
on evolutionary phase and SNR. We then fit a selection of data in order to
validate the model outputs. Fits to a variety of benchmark stars including
Procyon, Arcturus, and the Sun result in derived stellar parameters that are in
good agreement with the literature. We then fit combined spectra and photometry
of stars in the open and globular clusters M92, M13, M3, M107, M71, and M67.
Derived distances, [Fe/H], [a/Fe], and log(g)-Teff, relations are in overall
good agreement with literature values, although there are trends between
metallicity and log(g), within clusters that point to systematic uncertainties
at the ~0.1 dex level. Finally, we fit a large sample of stars from the H3
Spectroscopic Survey in which high quality Gaia parallaxes are also available.
These stars are fit without the Gaia parallaxes so that the geometric
parallaxes can serve as an independent test of the spectrophotometric
distances. Comparison between the two reveals good agreement within their
formal uncertainties after accounting for the Gaia zero point uncertainties.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures, Accepted by Ap
A Lower Limit on the Mass of Our Galaxy from the H3 Survey
The timing argument provides a lower limit on the mass of the Milky Way. We
find, using a sample of 32 stars at kpc drawn from the H3
Spectroscopic Survey and mock catalogs created from published numerical
simulations, that M M with 90% confidence.
We recommend using this limit to refine the allowed prior mass range in more
complex and sophisticated statistical treatments of Milky Way dynamics. The use
of such a prior would have significantly reduced many previously published
uncertainty ranges. Our analysis suggests that the most likely value of
M is M, but establishing this as the
Milky Way mass requires a larger sample of outer halo stars and a more complete
analysis of the inner halo stars in H3. The imminent growth in the sample of
outer halo stars due to ongoing and planned surveys will make this possible.Comment: 8 pages, submitted for publicatio
The California-Kepler Survey. III. A Gap in the Radius Distribution of Small Planets
The size of a planet is an observable property directly connected to the
physics of its formation and evolution. We used precise radius measurements
from the California-Kepler Survey (CKS) to study the size distribution of 2025
planets in fine detail. We detect a factor of 2 deficit
in the occurrence rate distribution at 1.5-2.0 R. This gap splits
the population of close-in ( < 100 d) small planets into two size regimes:
R < 1.5 R and R = 2.0-3.0 R, with few planets in
between. Planets in these two regimes have nearly the same intrinsic frequency
based on occurrence measurements that account for planet detection
efficiencies. The paucity of planets between 1.5 and 2.0 R supports
the emerging picture that close-in planets smaller than Neptune are composed of
rocky cores measuring 1.5 R or smaller with varying amounts of
low-density gas that determine their total sizes.Comment: Paper III in the California-Kepler Survey series, accepted to the
Astronomical Journa
The California-Kepler Survey. II. Precise Physical Properties of 2025 Kepler Planets and Their Host Stars
We present stellar and planetary properties for 1305 Kepler Objects of
Interest (KOIs) hosting 2025 planet candidates observed as part of the
California-Kepler Survey. We combine spectroscopic constraints, presented in
Paper I, with stellar interior modeling to estimate stellar masses, radii, and
ages. Stellar radii are typically constrained to 11%, compared to 40% when only
photometric constraints are used. Stellar masses are constrained to 4%, and
ages are constrained to 30%. We verify the integrity of the stellar parameters
through comparisons with asteroseismic studies and Gaia parallaxes. We also
recompute planetary radii for 2025 planet candidates. Because knowledge of
planetary radii is often limited by uncertainties in stellar size, we improve
the uncertainties in planet radii from typically 42% to 12%. We also leverage
improved knowledge of stellar effective temperature to recompute incident
stellar fluxes for the planets, now precise to 21%, compared to a factor of two
when derived from photometry.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in AJ; full
versions of tables 3 and 4 are include
The California-Kepler Survey V. Peas in a Pod: Planets in a Kepler Multi-planet System are Similar in Size and Regularly Spaced
We have established precise planet radii, semimajor axes, incident stellar
fluxes, and stellar masses for 909 planets in 355 multi-planet systems
discovered by Kepler. In this sample, we find that planets within a single
multi-planet system have correlated sizes: each planet is more likely to be the
size of its neighbor than a size drawn at random from the distribution of
observed planet sizes. In systems with three or more planets, the planets tend
to have a regular spacing: the orbital period ratios of adjacent pairs of
planets are correlated. Furthermore, the orbital period ratios are smaller in
systems with smaller planets, suggesting that the patterns in planet sizes and
spacing are linked through formation and/or subsequent orbital dynamics. Yet,
we find that essentially no planets have orbital period ratios smaller than
, regardless of planet size. Using empirical mass-radius relationships, we
estimate the mutual Hill separations of planet pairs. We find that of
the planet pairs are at least 10 mutual Hill radii apart, and that a spacing of
mutual Hill radii is most common. We also find that when comparing
planet sizes, the outer planet is larger in of cases, and the
typical ratio of the outer to inner planet size is positively correlated with
the temperature difference between the planets. This could be the result of
photo-evaporation.Comment: Published in The Astronomical Journal. 15 pages, 17 figure
- …