SuperWASP-North Extra-solar Planet Candidates between 3hr < RA < 6hr

TL;DR

This paper reports on the detection of four promising extrasolar planet candidates from the SuperWASP-North survey, based on analysis of 1.3 billion data points from 6.7 million stars, focusing on the 3h-6h RA range.

Contribution

The study presents a large-scale photometric survey and a detailed candidate selection process, identifying new potential hot-Jupiter exoplanets with rigorous filtering techniques.

Findings

Identified 4 strong exoplanet candidates for follow-up.

Processed 1.3 billion data points from 6.7 million stars.

Developed a systematic candidate filtering methodology.

Abstract

The Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) photometrically surveys a large number of nearby stars to uncover candidate extrasolar planet systems by virtue of small-amplitude lightcurve dips on a < 5-day timescale typical of the ``Hot-Jupiters.'' Observations with the SuperWASP-North instrument between April and September 2004 produced a rich photometric dataset of some 1.3 billion datapoints from 6.7 million stars. Our custom-built data acquisition and processing system produces ~0.02 mag photometric precision at V=13. We present the transit-candidates in the 03h-06h RA range. Of 141,895 lightcurves with sufficient sampling to provide adequate coverage, 2688 show statistically significant transit-like periodicities. Of these, 44 pass visual inspection of the lightcurve, of which 24 are removed through a set of cuts on the statistical significance of artefacts. All but 4 of the remaining 20 objects are removed when prior information at higher spatial-resolution from existing catalogues is taken into account. Of the four candidates remaining, one is considered a good candidate for follow-up observations with three further second-priority targets. We provide detailed information on these candidates, as well as a selection of the false-positives and astrophysical false-alarms that were eliminated, and discuss briefly the impact of sampling on our results.