Physical Properties and Impact Parameter Variations of Kepler Planets from Analytic Light Curve Modeling

TL;DR

This paper introduces an analytic model to interpret Kepler multi-planet systems, revealing physical properties, mass constraints, and impact parameter variations, including potential unseen companions, with high statistical significance.

Contribution

The study applies a novel analytic light curve model to Kepler data, enabling detailed analysis of multi-planet systems and impact parameter variations, including non-transiting objects, with validated results.

Findings

102 planets with mass detections >3 sigma

43 planets lighter than five Earth masses

35 systems with significant impact parameter variations

Abstract

We apply AnalyticLC, an analytic model described in an accompanying paper, to interpret Kepler data of systems that contain two or three transiting planets. We perform tests to verify that the obtained solutions agree with full N-body integrations, and that the number of model parameters is statistically justified. We probe non-coplanar interactions via impact parameter variations (TbVs), enabled by our analytic model. The subset of systems with a valid solution includes 54 systems composed of 140 planets, more than half of which without previously reported mass constraints. Overall we provide: (1) Estimates on physical and orbital properties for all systems analyzed. (2) 102 planets with mass detections significant to better than 3 standard deviations, 43 of which are lighter than five Earth masses. (3) 35 TbVs significant to better than 3 standard deviations. We focus on select systems showing strong TbVs, which can result from either interaction among the known transiting planets, or with a non-transiting object, and provide: (4) a method to constrain the parameters of such unseen companions. These results are enabled by an accurate, 3D, photodynamical model, of a kind expected to become increasingly important for modeling multi-decade photometric and composite (RV, astrometry) data sets.