SuperWASP-North Extrasolar Planet Candidates. Candidates from Fields 17hr < RA < 18hr

TL;DR

This study reports the discovery of 7 new transiting exoplanet candidates from a large photometric survey of nearly 7 million stars, using a modified detection algorithm and rigorous candidate validation.

Contribution

It presents a large-scale survey using SuperWASP-North, applying a modified BLS algorithm to identify and validate new transiting exoplanet candidates in the 17-18hr RA fields.

Findings

7 transiting planet candidates pass all validation tests.

58 initial candidates identified with high S/N and multiple dips.

Survey covers over 185,000 stars with quality data.

Abstract

We have performed photometric observations of nearly 7 million stars with 8 < V < 15 with the SuperWASP-North instrument from La Palma between 2004 May-September. Fields in the RA range 17-18hr, yielding over 185,000 stars with sufficient quality data, have been searched for transits using a modified box least-squares (BLS) algorithm. We find a total of 58 initial transiting candidates which have high S/N in the BLS, show multiple transit-like dips and have passed visual inspection. Analysis of the blending and inferred planetary radii for these candidates leaves a total of 7 transiting planet candidates which pass all the tests plus 4 which pass the majority. We discuss the derived parameters for these candidates and their properties and comment on the implications for future transit searches.