Extrasolar Planets and Their Host Stars

TL;DR

This paper reviews methods for characterizing exoplanet host stars using interferometry, parallax, and SED fitting, providing a comprehensive update on stellar parameters crucial for understanding exoplanets and their habitability.

Contribution

It offers a detailed overview of observational techniques and presents a high-precision catalog of stellar properties, advancing the accuracy of exoplanet characterization.

Findings

High-precision interferometric diameters for stars within 150 pc

Insights into transiting exoplanet systems and habitable zones

Identification of discrepancies between direct and model-based stellar radii

Abstract

In order to understand the exoplanet, you need to understand its parent star. Astrophysical parameters of extrasolar planets are directly and indirectly dependent on the properties of their respective host stars. These host stars are very frequently the only visible component in the systems. This book describes our work in the field of characterization of exoplanet host stars using interferometry to determine angular diameters, trigonometric parallax to determine physical radii, and SED fitting to determine effective temperatures and luminosities. The interferometry data are based on our decade-long survey using the CHARA Array. We describe our methods and give an update on the status of the field, including a table with the astrophysical properties of all stars with high-precision interferometric diameters out to 150 pc (status Nov 2016). In addition, we elaborate in more detail on a number of particularly significant or important exoplanet systems, particularly with respect to (1) insights gained from transiting exoplanets, (2) the determination of system habitable zones, and (3) the discrepancy between directly determined and model-based stellar radii. Finally, we discuss current and future work including the calibration of semi-empirical methods based on interferometric data.