# Visual Analysis and Demographics of Kepler Transit Timing Variations

## TL;DR

This study visually analyzed Kepler's TTV data for nearly 6000 KOIs, revealing patterns and new systems with potential for further planetary characterization and understanding of system architectures.

## Contribution

It provides a homogeneous visual rating of TTVs across a large KOI sample, identifying additional systems with significant TTVs beyond previous statistical detections.

## Key findings

- Strong TTVs increase with period and radius.
- Many TTVs are near resonance but not exclusively.
- Some TTVs suggest unknown perturbing planets.

## Abstract

We visually analyzed the Transit Timing Variation (TTV) data of 5930 Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs) homogeneously. Using data from Rowe et al. 2014 and Holczer et al. 2016, we investigated TTVs for KOIs in Kepler's Data Release 24 catalog. Using TTV plots, periodograms, and folded quadratic sinusoid fits, we visually rated each KOI's TTV data in five categories. Our ratings emphasize the hundreds of planets with TTVs that are weaker than the 200 or so that have been studied in detail. Our findings are consistent with statistical methods for identifying strong TTVs (Holczer et al. 2016), though we find some additional systems worth investigation. Between about 3-50 days and 1.3-6 Earth radii, the frequency of strong TTVs increases with period and radius. As expected, strong TTVs are very common when period ratios are near a resonance, but there is not a one-to-one correspondence. The observed planet-by-planet frequency of strong TTVs is only somewhat lower in systems with 1-2 known planets (7 +/- 1 percent) than in systems with 3+ known planets (11 +/- 2 percent). We attribute TTVs to known planets in multi-transiting systems, but find about 30 cases where the perturbing planet is unknown. Our conclusions are valuable as an ensemble for learning about planetary system architectures and individually as stepping stones towards more detailed mass-radius constraints. We also discuss Data Release 25 TTVs, about 100 KOIs with Transit Duration and/or Depth Variations, and that the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will likely find roughly 10 planets with strong TTVs.