A Uniformly Derived Catalogue of Exoplanets from Radial Velocities

TL;DR

This paper presents a new, uniformly derived catalogue of 94 exoplanets from radial velocity data using a Bayesian approach, enabling consistent orbital parameter estimation and model selection.

Contribution

It introduces a Bayesian framework for re-analyzing radial velocity data, providing a consistent catalogue of exoplanets and a method for model comparison between one- and two-planet solutions.

Findings

High agreement (99%) between visual and chi-square model selection methods.

Catalogue includes orbital parameters for 94 exoplanetary systems.

Framework can be extended to incorporate additional data types.

Abstract

A new catalogue of extrasolar planets is presented by re-analysing a selection of published radial velocity data sets using EXOFIT (Balan & Lahav 2009). All objects are treated on an equal footing within a Bayesian framework, to give orbital parameters for 94 exoplanetary systems. Model selection (between one- and two-planet solutions) is then performed, using both a visual flagging method and a standard chi-square analysis, with agreement between the two methods for 99% of the systems considered. The catalogue is to be made available online, and this 'proof of concept' study may be maintained and extended in the future to incorporate all systems with publicly available radial velocity data, as well as transit and microlensing data.