Kepler KOI-13.01 - Detection of beaming and ellipsoidal modulations pointing to a massive hot Jupiter

TL;DR

This paper analyzes Kepler data of KOI-13 to detect beaming and ellipsoidal modulations, estimating the companion's mass and properties, and suggesting it is a massive hot Jupiter with high albedo.

Contribution

The study provides the first detection of beaming and ellipsoidal effects in KOI-13, estimating the companion's mass and thermal properties, indicating a massive hot Jupiter.

Findings

Estimated companion mass of 10 +/- 2 M_Jup.

Detected periodicities suggesting thermal emission from the night side.

Indications of a high Bond albedo for KOI-13.01.

Abstract

KOI-13 was presented by the Kepler team as a candidate for having a giant planet - KOI-13.01, with orbital period of 1.7 d and transit depth of ~0.8%. We have analyzed the Kepler Q2 data of KOI-13, which was publicly available at the time of the submission of this paper, and derived the amplitudes of the beaming, ellipsoidal and reflection modulations: 8.6 +/- 1.1, 66.8 +/- 1.6 and 72.0 +/- 1.5 ppm (parts per million), respectively. After the paper was submitted, Q3 data were released, so we repeated the analysis with the newly available light curve. The results of the two quarters were quite similar. From the amplitude of the beaming modulation we derived a mass of 10 +/- 2 M_Jup for the secondary, suggesting that KOI-13.01 was a massive planet, with one of the largest known radii. We also found in the data a periodicity of unknown origin with a period of 1.0595 d and a peak-to-peak modulation of ~60 ppm. The light curve of Q3 revealed a few more small-amplitude periodicities with similar frequencies. It seemed as if the secondary occultation of KOI-13 was slightly deeper than the reflection peak-to-peak modulation by 16.8 +/- 4.5 ppm. If real, this small difference was a measure of the thermal emission from the night side of KOI-13.01. We estimated the effective temperature to be 2600 +/- 150 K, using a simplistic black-body emissivity approximation. We then derived the planetary geometrical and Bond albedos as a function of the day-side temperature. Our analysis suggested that the Bond albedo of KOI-13.01 might be substantially larger than the geometrical albedo.