43 research outputs found

    V1298 Tau with TESS: Updated Ephemerides, Radii, and Period Constraints from a Second Transit of V1298 Tau e

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    V1298 Tau is a young (20-30 Myr) solar-mass K star hosting four transiting exoplanets with sizes between 0.5 and 0.9 R J. Given the system's youth, it provides a unique opportunity to understand the evolution of planetary radii at different separations in the same stellar environment. V1298 Tau was originally observed 6 yr ago during K2 Campaign 4. Now, V1298 Tau has been re-observed during the extended mission of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Here, we present new photometric observations of V1298 Tau from TESS. We use the TESS data to update the ephemerides for V1298 Tau bcde as well as compare newly observed radii to those measured from the K2 light curve, finding shallower transits for V1298 Tau bcd in the redder TESS bandpass at the 1-2σ level. We suspect the difference in radii is due to starspot crossing events or contamination from nearby faint stars on the same pixels as V1298 Tau. Additionally, we catch a second transit of V1298 Tau e and present a new method for deriving the marginalized posterior probability of a planet's period from two transits observed years apart. We find the highest probability period for V1298 Tau e to be in a near 2:1 mean motion resonance with V1298 Tau b which, if confirmed, could make V1298 Tau bcde a four-planet resonant chain. V1298 Tau is the target of several ongoing and future observations. These updated ephemerides will be crucial for scheduling future transit observations and interpreting future Doppler tomographic or transmission spectroscopy signals

    The Influence of Free Quintessence on Gravitational Frequency Shift and Deflection of Light with 4D momentum

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    Based on the 4D momentum, the influence of quintessence on the gravitational frequency shift and the deflection of light are examined in modified Schwarzschild space. We find that the frequency of photon depends on the state parameter of quintessence wqw_q: the frequency increases for 1<wq<1/3-1<w_q<-1/3 and decreases for 1/3<wq<0-1/3<w_q<0. Meanwhile, we adopt an integral power number aa (a=3ωq+2a = 3\omega_q + 2) to solve the orbital equation of photon. The photon's potentials become higher with the decrease of ωq\omega_q. The behavior of bending light depends on the state parameter ωq\omega_q sensitively. In particular, for the case of ωq=1\omega_q = -1, there is no influence on the deflection of light by quintessence. Else, according to the H-masers of GP-A redshift experiment and the long-baseline interferometry, the constraints on the quintessence field in Solar system are presented here.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables. European Physical Journal C in pres

    Problems with Tachyon Inflation

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    We consider cosmological consequences of string theory tachyon condensation. We show that it is very difficult to obtain inflation in the simplest versions of this theory. Typically, inflation in these theories could occur only at super-Planckian densities, where the effective 4D field theory is inapplicable. Reheating and creation of matter in models where the tachyon potential V(T) has a minimum at infinitely large T is problematic because the tachyon field in such theories does not oscillate. If the universe after inflation is dominated by the energy density of the tachyon condensate, it will always remain dominated by the tachyons. It might happen that string condensation is responsible for a short stage of inflation at a nearly Planckian density, but one would need to have a second stage of inflation after that. This would imply that the tachyon played no role in the post-inflationary universe until the very late stages of its evolution. These problems do not appear in the recently proposed models of hybrid inflation where the complex tachyon field has a minimum at T << M_p.Comment: 13 page

    Entropy and universality of Cardy-Verlinde formula in dark energy universe

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    We study the entropy of a FRW universe filled with dark energy (cosmological constant, quintessence or phantom). For general or time-dependent equation of state p=wρp=w\rho the entropy is expressed in terms of energy, Casimir energy, and ww. The correspondent expression reminds one about 2d CFT entropy only for conformal matter. At the same time, the cosmological Cardy-Verlinde formula relating three typical FRW universe entropies remains to be universal for any type of matter. The same conclusions hold in modified gravity which represents gravitational alternative for dark energy and which contains terms growing at low curvature. It is interesting that BHs in modified gravity are more entropic than in Einstein gravity. Finally, some hydrodynamical examples testing new shear viscosity bound, which is expected to be the consequence of the holographic entropy bound, are presented for the early universe in the plasma era and for the Kasner metric. It seems that the Kasner metric provides a counterexample to the new shear viscosity bound.Comment: LaTeX file, 39 pages, references are adde

    Revisiting the HD 21749 planetary system with stellar activity modelling

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    HD 21749 is a bright (V = 8.1 mag) K dwarf at 16 pc known to host an inner terrestrial planet HD 21749c as well as an outer sub-Neptune HD 21749b, both delivered by Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Follow-up spectroscopic observations measured the mass of HD 21749b to be 22.7 ± 2.2 M with a density of 7.0^{+1.6}_{-1.3} g cm-3, making it one of the densest sub-Neptunes. However, the mass measurement was suspected to be influenced by stellar rotation. Here, we present new high-cadence PFS RV data to disentangle the stellar activity signal from the planetary signal. We find that HD 21749 has a similar rotational time-scale as the planet's orbital period, and the amplitude of the planetary orbital RV signal is estimated to be similar to that of the stellar activity signal. We perform Gaussian process regression on the photometry and RVs from HARPS and PFS to model the stellar activity signal. Our new models reveal that HD 21749b has a radius of 2.86 ± 0.20 R, an orbital period of 35.6133 ± 0.0005 d with a mass of Mb = 20.0 ± 2.7 M and a density of 4.8^{+2.0}_{-1.4} g cm-3 on an eccentric orbit with e = 0.16 ± 0.06, which is consistent with the most recent values published for this system. HD 21749c has an orbital period of 7.7902 ± 0.0006 d, a radius of 1.13 ± 0.10 R, and a 3σ mass upper limit of 3.5 M. Our Monte Carlo simulations confirm that without properly taking stellar activity signals into account, the mass measurement of HD 21749b is likely to arrive at a significantly underestimated error bar

    Photochemically produced SO2 in the atmosphere of WASP-39b

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    S.-M.T. is supported by the European Research Council advanced grant EXOCONDENSE (no. 740963; principal investigator: R. T. Pierrehumbert). E.K.H.L. is supported by the SNSF Ambizione Fellowship grant (no. 193448). X.Z. is supported by NASA Exoplanet Research grant 80NSSC22K0236. O.V. acknowledges funding from the ANR project ‘EXACT’ (ANR-21-CE49-0008-01), from the Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) and from the CNRS/INSU Programme National de Planétologie (PNP). L.D. acknowledges support from the European Union H2020-MSCA-ITN-2109 under grant no. 860470 (CHAMELEON) and the KU Leuven IDN/19/028 grant Escher. This work benefited from the 2022 Exoplanet Summer Program at the Other Worlds Laboratory (OWL) at the University of California, Santa Cruz, a programme financed by the Heising-Simons Foundation. T.D. is an LSSTC Catalyst Fellow. J.K. is an Imperial College Research Fellow. B.V.R. is a 51 Pegasi b Fellow. L.W. is an NHFP Sagan Fellow. A.D.F. is an NSF Graduate Research Fellow.Photochemistry is a fundamental process of planetary atmospheres that regulates the atmospheric composition and stability1. However, no unambiguous photochemical products have been detected in exoplanet atmospheres so far. Recent observations from the JWST Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science Program2,3 found a spectral absorption feature at 4.05 μm arising from sulfur dioxide (SO2) in the atmosphere of WASP-39b. WASP-39b is a 1.27-Jupiter-radii, Saturn-mass (0.28 MJ) gas giant exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star with an equilibrium temperature of around 1,100 K (ref. 4). The most plausible way of generating SO2 in such an atmosphere is through photochemical processes5,6. Here we show that the SO2 distribution computed by a suite of photochemical models robustly explains the 4.05-μm spectral feature identified by JWST transmission observations7 with NIRSpec PRISM (2.7σ)8 and G395H (4.5σ)9. SO2 is produced by successive oxidation of sulfur radicals freed when hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is destroyed. The sensitivity of the SO2 feature to the enrichment of the atmosphere by heavy elements (metallicity) suggests that it can be used as a tracer of atmospheric properties, with WASP-39b exhibiting an inferred metallicity of about 10× solar. We further point out that SO2 also shows observable features at ultraviolet and thermal infrared wavelengths not available from the existing observations.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

    The L 98-59 System: Three Transiting, Terrestrial-Size Planets Orbiting A Nearby M Dwarf

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    We report the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) discovery of three terrestrial-size planets transiting L 98-59 (TOI-175, TIC 307210830)—a bright M dwarf at a distance of 10.6 pc. Using the Gaia-measured distance and broadband photometry, we find that the host star is an M3 dwarf. Combined with the TESS transits from three sectors, the corresponding stellar parameters yield planet radii ranging from 0.8 R⊕ to 1.6 R⊕. All three planets have short orbital periods, ranging from 2.25 to 7.45 days with the outer pair just wide of a 2:1 period resonance. Diagnostic tests produced by the TESS Data Validation Report and the vetting package DAVE rule out common false-positive sources. These analyses, along with dedicated follow-up and the multiplicity of the system, lend confidence that the observed signals are caused by planets transiting L 98-59 and are not associated with other sources in the field. The L 98-59 system is interesting for a number of reasons: the host star is bright (V = 11.7 mag, K = 7.1 mag) and the planets are prime targets for further follow-up observations including precision radial-velocity mass measurements and future transit spectroscopy with the James Webb Space Telescope; the near-resonant configuration makes the system a laboratory to study planetary system dynamical evolution; and three planets of relatively similar size in the same system present an opportunity to study terrestrial planets where other variables (age, metallicity, etc.) can be held constant. L 98-59 will be observed in four more TESS sectors, which will provide a wealth of information on the three currently known planets and have the potential to reveal additional planets in the system

    TOI 122b and TOI 237b: Two Small Warm Planets Orbiting Inactive M Dwarfs Found by TESS

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    We report the discovery and validation of TOI 122b and TOI 237b, two warm planets transiting inactive M dwarfs observed by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Our analysis shows that TOI 122b has a radius of 2.72 ± 0.18 R ⊕ and receives 8.8 ± 1.0 times Earth's bolometric insolation, and TOI 237b has a radius of 1.44±0.12 R ⊕ and receives 3.7 ± 0.5 times Earth's insolation, straddling the 6.7 Earth insolation that Mercury receives from the Sun. This makes these two of the cooler planets yet discovered by TESS, even on their 5.08 and 5.43 day orbits. Together, they span the small-planet radius valley, providing useful laboratories for exploring volatile evolution around M dwarfs. Their relatively nearby distances (62.23 ± 0.21 pc and 38.11 ± 0.23 pc, respectively) make them potentially feasible targets for future radial velocity follow-up and atmospheric characterization, although such observations may require substantial investments of time on large telescopes

    Planet Hunters Tess I: TOI 813, a subgiant hosting a transiting Saturn-sized planet on an 84-day orbit

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    We report on the discovery and validation of TOI 813 b (TIC55525572b), a transiting exoplanet identified by citizen scientists in data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the first planet discovered by the Planet Hunters TESS project. The host star is a bright (V = 10.3 mag) subgiant (R* = 1.94 R☉, M☉ = 1.32 M☉). It was observed almost continuously by TESS during its first year of operations, during which time four individual transit events were detected. The candidate passed all the standard light curve-based vetting checks, and ground-based follow-up spectroscopy and speckle imaging enabled us to place an upper limit of 2 MJup (99 per cent confidence) on the mass of the companion, and to statistically validate its planetary nature. Detailed modelling of the transits yields a period of 83.8911+0.0027-0.0031 d, a planet radius of 6.71 ± 0.38 R⊕ and a semimajor axis of 0.423+0031-0.037 AU. The planet's orbital period combined with the evolved nature of the host star places this object in a relatively underexplored region of parameter space. We estimate that TOI 813 b induces a reflex motion in its host star with a semi-amplitude of ∼6 m s−1, making this a promising system to measure the mass of a relatively long-period transiting planet
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