On the Detection of Non-Transiting Hot Jupiters in Multiple-Planet Systems

TL;DR

This paper proposes a photometric method to detect non-transiting hot Jupiters in systems with transiting planets by analyzing light curves and transit timing variations, offering a new way to test planetary formation theories.

Contribution

It introduces a novel photometric detection technique for non-transiting hot Jupiters using Kepler data, and demonstrates its application with a candidate in the KOI-1822 system.

Findings

Potential non-transiting hot Jupiter identified in KOI-1822.

Method can confirm candidates with few Doppler observations.

Supports in situ formation theories for hot Jupiters.

Abstract

We outline a photometric method for detecting the presence of a non-transiting short-period giant planet in a planetary system harboring one or more longer period transiting planets. Within a prospective system of the type that we consider, a hot Jupiter on an interior orbit inclined to the line-of-sight signals its presence through approximately sinusoidal full-phase photometric variations in the stellar light curve, correlated with astrometrically induced transit timing variations for exterior transiting planets. Systems containing a hot Jupiter along with a low-mass outer planet or planets on inclined orbits are a predicted hallmark of in situ accretion for hot Jupiters, and their presence can thus be used to test planetary formation theories. We outline the prospects for detecting non-transiting hot Jupiters using photometric data from typical \textit{Kepler} objects of interest (KOIs). As a demonstration of the technique, we perform a brief assessment of \textit{Kepler} candidates and identify a potential non-transiting hot Jupiter in the KOI-1822 system. Candidate non-transiting hot Jupiters can be readily confirmed with a small number of Doppler velocity observations, even for stars with $V\gtrsim14$.