Single Transits and Eclipses Observed by K2

TL;DR

This paper presents a catalog of 164 single transit and eclipse candidates from K2 data, aiding the study of long-period exoplanets and system architectures beyond 1 AU.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive catalog of single transit events from K2, expanding the search for long-period exoplanets.

Findings

Catalog of 164 single transit candidates

Enhanced understanding of long-period exoplanet occurrence

Supports statistical analysis of distant gas giants

Abstract

Photometric survey data from the Kepler mission have been used to discover and characterize thousands of transiting exoplanet and eclipsing binary (EB) systems. These discoveries have enabled empirical studies of occurrence rates which reveal that exoplanets are ubiquitous and found in a wide variety of system architectures and physical compositions. Because the detection strategy of these missions is most sensitive to short orbital periods, the vast majority of these objects reside within 1 AU of their host star. Although other detection techniques have successfully identified exoplanets at wider orbits beyond the snow lines of their respective host stars (e.g., radial velocity, microlensing, direct imaging), occurrence rates within this population remain poorly constrained. As such, identifying long period objects (LPOs) from archival Kepler and K2 data is valuable from both a statistical and theoretical standpoint, particularly for massive gas giants which are thought to heavily influence the formation and evolution dynamics of their respective systems. Here we present a catalog of 164 single transit and eclipse candidates detected during a comprehensive survey of all currently available K2 data.