Transit Timing Observations from Kepler: VII. Confirmation of 27 planets in 13 multiplanet systems via Transit Timing Variations and orbital stability

TL;DR

This paper confirms 27 exoplanets in 13 systems using transit timing variations and stability analysis, demonstrating their planetary nature and near-resonance orbital configurations.

Contribution

It applies TTV and stability methods to confirm multiple planets and analyze their orbital resonances, expanding the known exoplanet systems.

Findings

27 planets confirmed via TTVs and stability

Most systems near first-order mean motion resonances

Kepler-56 is a notable large-star planetary system

Abstract

We confirm 27 planets in 13 planetary systems by showing the existence of statistically significant anti-correlated transit timing variations (TTVs), which demonstrates that the planet candidates are in the same system, and long-term dynamical stability, which places limits on the masses of the candidates---showing that they are planetary. %This overall method of planet confirmation was first applied to \kepler systems 23 through 32. All of these newly confirmed planetary systems have orbital periods that place them near first-order mean motion resonances (MMRs), including 6 systems near the 2:1 MMR, 5 near 3:2, and one each near 4:3, 5:4, and 6:5. In addition, several unconfirmed planet candidates exist in some systems (that cannot be confirmed with this method at this time). A few of these candidates would also be near first order MMRs with either the confirmed planets or with other candidates. One system of particular interest, Kepler-56 (KOI-1241), is a pair of planets orbiting a 12th magnitude, giant star with radius over three times that of the Sun and effective temperature of 4900 K---among the largest stars known to host a transiting exoplanetary system.