arXiv subjects

Daniel Huber

Publications and source records attributed to Daniel Huber.

At least 235 records · Page 13Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Strain-Tunable GaAs Quantum dot: A Nearly Dephasing-Free Source of Entangled Photon Pairs on Demand

Entangled photon generation from semiconductor quantum dots via the biexciton-exciton cascade underlies various decoherence mechanisms related to the solid-state nature of the quantum emitters. So far, this has prevented the demonstration of nearly-maximally entangled photons without the aid of inefficient and complex post-selection techniques that are hardly suitable for quantum communication technologies. Here, we tackle this challenge using strain-tunable GaAs quantum dots driven under two-photon resonant excitation and with strictly-degenerate exciton states. We demonstrate experimentally that our on-demand source generates polarization-entangled photons with fidelity of 0.978(5) and concurrence of 0.97(1) without resorting to post-selection techniques. Moreover, we show that the remaining decoherence mechanisms can be overcome using a modest Purcell enhancement so as to achieve a degree of entanglement >0.99. Our results highlight that GaAs quantum dots can be readily used in advanced communication protocols relying on the non-local properties of quantum entanglement.

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arXiv2018

Revised Radii of Kepler Stars and Planets Using Gaia Data Release 2

One bottleneck for the exploitation of data from the $Kepler$ mission for stellar astrophysics and exoplanet research has been the lack of precise radii and evolutionary states for most of the observed stars. We report revised radii of 177,911 $Kepler$ stars derived by combining parallaxes from $Gaia$ Data Release 2 with the DR25 $Kepler$ Stellar Properties Catalog. The median radius precision is $\approx$ 8%, a typical improvement by a factor of 4-5 over previous estimates for typical $Kepler$ stars. We find that $\approx$ 67% ($\approx$ 120,000) of all $Kepler$ targets are main-sequence stars, $\approx$ 21% ($\approx$ 37,000) are subgiants, and $\approx$ 12% ($\approx$ 21,000) are red giants, demonstrating that subgiant contamination is less severe than some previous estimates and that Kepler targets are mostly main-sequence stars. Using the revised stellar radii, we recalculate the radii for 2123 confirmed and 1922 candidate exoplanets. We confirm the presence of a gap in the radius distribution of small, close-in planets, but find that the gap is mostly limited to incident fluxes $>$ 200$F_\oplus$ and its location may be at a slightly larger radius (closer to $\approx$ 2$R_\oplus$) when compared to previous results. Further, we find several confirmed exoplanets occupying a previously-described "hot super-Earth desert" at high irradiance, show the relation between gas-giant planet radius and incident flux, and establish a bona-fide sample of eight confirmed planets and 30 planet candidates with $R_{\mathrm{p}}$ $<$ 2$R_\oplus$ in circumstellar "habitable zones" (incident fluxes between 0.25--1.50 $F_\oplus$). The results presented here demonstrate the potential for transformative characterization of stellar and exoplanet populations using $Gaia$ data.

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arXiv2018

The TESS Input Catalog and Candidate Target List

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will be conducting a nearly all-sky photometric survey over two years, with a core mission goal to discover small transiting exoplanets orbiting nearby bright stars. It will obtain 30-minute cadence observations of all objects in the TESS fields of view, along with 2-minute cadence observations of 200,000 to 400,000 selected stars. The choice of which stars to observe at the 2-min cadence is driven by the need to detect small transiting planets, which leads to the selection of primarily bright, cool dwarfs. We describe the catalogs assembled and the algorithms used to populate the TESS Input Catalog (TIC). We also describe a ranking system for prioritizing stars according to the smallest transiting planet detectable, and assemble a Candidate Target List (CTL) using that ranking. We discuss additional factors that affect the ability to photometrically detect and dynamically confirm small planets, and we note additional stellar populations of interest that may be added to the final target list. The TIC is available on the STScI MAST server, and an enhanced CTL is available through the Filtergraph data visualization portal system at the URL https://filtergraph.vanderbilt.edu/tess_ctl .

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arXiv2018

Measuring the Recoverability of Close Binaries in Gaia DR2 with the Robo-AO Kepler Survey

We use the Robo-AO survey of Kepler planetary candidate host stars, the largest adaptive optics survey yet performed, to measure the recovery rate of close stellar binaries in Gaia DR2. We find that Gaia recovers binaries down to 1" at magnitude contrasts as large as 6; closer systems are not resolved, regardless of secondary brightness. Gaia DR2 binary detection does not have a strong dependence on the orientation of the stellar pairs. We find 177 nearby stars to Kepler planetary candidate host stars in Gaia DR2 that were not detected in the Robo-AO survey, almost all of which are faint (G>20); the remainder were largely targets observed by Robo-AO in poor conditions. If the primary star is the host, the impact on the radii estimates of planet candidates in these systems is likely minimal; many of these faint stars, however, could be faint eclipsing binaries that are the source of a false positive planetary transit signal. With Robo-AO and Gaia combined, we find that 18.7% of Kepler planet candidate hosts have nearby stars within 4". We also find 36 nearby stars in Gaia DR2 around 35 planetary candidate host stars detected with K2. The nearby star fraction rate for K2 planetary candidates is significantly lower than that for the primary Kepler mission. The binary recovery rate of Gaia will improve initial radius estimates of future TESS planet candidates significantly, however ground-based high-resolution follow-up observations are still needed for precise characterization and confirmation. The sensitivity of Gaia to closely separated binaries is expected to improve in later data releases.

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arXiv2018

Surface gravities for 15,000 Kepler stars measured from stellar granulation and validated with Gaia DR2 parallaxes

We have developed a method to estimate surface gravity (log g) from light curves by measuring the granulation background, similar to the "flicker" method by Bastien et al. (2016) but working in the Fourier power spectrum. We calibrated the method using Kepler stars for which asteroseismology has been possible with short-cadence data, demonstrating a precision in log g of about 0.05 dex. We also derived a correction for white noise as a function of Kepler magnitude by measuring white noise directly from observations. We then applied the method to the same sample of long-cadence stars as Bastien et al. We found that about half the stars are too faint for the granulation background to be reliably detected above the white noise. We provide a catalogue of log g values for about 15,000 stars having uncertainties better than 0.5 dex. We used Gaia DR2 parallaxes to validate that granulation is a powerful method to measure log g from light curves. Our method can also be applied to the large number of light curves collected by K2 and TESS.

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arXiv2018

Do close-in giant planets orbiting evolved stars prefer eccentric orbits?

The NASA Kepler and K2 Missions have recently revealed a population of transiting giant planets orbiting moderately evolved, low-luminosity red giant branch stars. Here, we present radial velocity measurements of three of these systems, revealing significantly non-zero orbital eccentricities in each case. Comparing these systems with the known planet population suggests that close-in giant planets around evolved stars tend to have more eccentric orbits than those around main-sequence stars. We interpret this as tentative evidence that the orbits of these planets pass through a transient, moderately eccentric phase where they shrink faster than they circularize due to tides raised on evolved host stars. Additional radial velocity measurements of currently known systems, along with new systems discovered by the recently launched NASA TESS mission, may constrain the timescale and mass dependence of this process.

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arXiv2018

Predicting radial-velocity jitter induced by stellar oscillations based on Kepler data

Radial-velocity (RV) jitter due to intrinsic stellar variability introduces challenges when characterizing exoplanet systems, particularly when studying small (sub-Neptune-sized) planets orbiting solar-type stars. In this Letter we predicted for dwarfs and giants the jitter due to stellar oscillations, which in velocity have much larger amplitudes than noise introduced by granulation. We then fitted the jitter in terms of the following sets of stellar parameters: (1) Luminosity, mass, and effective temperature: the fit returns precisions (i.e., standard deviations of fractional residuals) of 17.9% and 27.1% for dwarfs and giants, respectively. (2) Luminosity, effective temperature, and surface gravity: The precisions are the same as using the previous parameter set. (3) Surface gravity and effective temperature: we obtain a precision of 22.6% for dwarfs and 27.1% for giants. (4): Luminosity and effective temperature: the precision is 47.8% for dwarfs and 27.5% for giants. Our method will be valuable for anticipating the radial-velocity stellar noise level of exoplanet host stars to be found by the TESS and PLATO space missions, and thus can be useful for their follow-up spectroscopic observations. We provide publicly available code (https://github.com/Jieyu126/Jitter) to set a prior for the jitter term as a component when modeling the Keplerian orbits of the exoplanets.

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arXiv2018

The Robo-AO-2 facility for rapid visible/near-infrared AO imaging and the demonstration of hybrid techniques

We are building a next-generation laser adaptive optics system, Robo-AO-2, for the UH 2.2-m telescope that will deliver robotic, diffraction-limited observations at visible and near-infrared wavelengths in unprecedented numbers. The superior Maunakea observing site, expanded spectral range and rapid response to high-priority events represent a significant advance over the prototype. Robo-AO-2 will include a new reconfigurable natural guide star sensor for exquisite wavefront correction on bright targets and the demonstration of potentially transformative hybrid AO techniques that promise to extend the faintness limit on current and future exoplanet adaptive optics systems.

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arXiv2018

K2-231 b: A sub-Neptune exoplanet transiting a solar twin in Ruprecht 147

We identify a sub-Neptune exoplanet ($R_p = 2.5 \pm 0.2$ R$_\oplus$) transiting a solar twin in the Ruprecht 147 star cluster (3 Gyr, 300 pc, [Fe/H] = +0.1 dex). The ~81 day light curve for EPIC 219800881 (V = 12.71) from K2 Campaign 7 shows six transits with a period of 13.84 days, a depth of ~0.06%, and a duration of ~4 hours. Based on our analysis of high-resolution MIKE spectra, broadband optical and NIR photometry, the cluster parallax and interstellar reddening, and isochrone models from PARSEC, Dartmouth, and MIST, we estimate the following properties for the host star: $M_\star = 1.01 \pm 0.03$ M$_\odot$, $R_\star= 0.95 \pm 0.03$ R$_\odot$, and $T_{\rm eff} = 5695 \pm 50$ K. This star appears to be single, based on our modeling of the photometry, the low radial velocity variability measured over nearly ten years, and Keck/NIRC2 adaptive optics imaging and aperture-masking interferometry. Applying a probabilistic mass-radius relation, we estimate that the mass of this planet is $M_p = 7 +5 -3$ M$_\oplus$, which would cause a RV semi-amplitude of $K = 2 \pm 1$ m s$^{-1}$ that may be measurable with existing precise RV facilities. After statistically validating this planet with BLENDER, we now designate it K2-231 b, making it the second sub-stellar object to be discovered in Ruprecht 147 and the first planet; it joins the small but growing ranks of 23 other planets found in open clusters.

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arXiv2018

The Second APOKASC Catalog: The Empirical Approach

We present a catalog of stellar properties for a large sample of 6676 evolved stars with APOGEE spectroscopic parameters and \textit{Kepler} asteroseismic data analyzed using five independent techniques. Our data includes evolutionary state, surface gravity, mean density, mass, radius, age, and the spectroscopic and asteroseismic measurements used to derive them. We employ a new empirical approach for combining asteroseismic measurements from different methods, calibrating the inferred stellar parameters, and estimating uncertainties. With high statistical significance, we find that asteroseismic parameters inferred from the different pipelines have systematic offsets that are not removed by accounting for differences in their solar reference values. We include theoretically motivated corrections to the large frequency spacing ($Δν$) scaling relation, and we calibrate the zero point of the frequency of maximum power ($ν_{\rm max}$) relation to be consistent with masses and radii for members of star clusters. For most targets, the parameters returned by different pipelines are in much better agreement than would be expected from the pipeline-predicted random errors, but 22\% of them had at least one method not return a result and a much larger measurement dispersion. This supports the usage of multiple analysis techniques for asteroseismic stellar population studies. The measured dispersion in mass estimates for fundamental calibrators is consistent with our error model, which yields median random and systematic mass uncertainties for RGB stars of order 4\%. Median random and systematic mass uncertainties are at the 9\% and 8\% level respectively for RC stars.

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arXiv2018

Using asteroseismology to characterise exoplanet host stars

The last decade has seen a revolution in the field of asteroseismology - the study of stellar pulsations. It has become a powerful method to precisely characterise exoplanet host stars, and as a consequence also the exoplanets themselves. This synergy between asteroseismology and exoplanet science has flourished in large part due to space missions such as $\textit{Kepler}$, which have provided high-quality data that can be used for both types of studies. Perhaps the primary contribution from asteroseismology to the research on transiting exoplanets is the determination of very precise stellar radii that translate into precise planetary radii, but asteroseismology has also proven useful in constraining eccentricities of exoplanets as well as the dynamical architecture of planetary systems. In this contribution, we introduce some basic principles of asteroseismology and review current synergies between the two fields.

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arXiv2018

Asteroseismology of 16000 Kepler Red Giants: Global Oscillation Parameters, Masses, and Radii

The Kepler mission has provided exquisite data to perform an ensemble asteroseismic analysis on evolved stars. In this work we systematically characterize solar-like oscillations and granulation for 16,094 oscillating red giants, using end-of-mission long-cadence data. We produced a homogeneous catalog of the frequency of maximum power (typical uncertainty $σ_{ν_{\rm max}}$=1.6\%), the mean large frequency separation ($σ_{Δν}$=0.6\%), oscillation amplitude ($σ_{\rm A}$=4.7\%), granulation power ($σ_{\rm gran}$=8.6\%), power excess width ($σ_{\rm width}$=8.8\%), seismically-derived stellar mass ($σ_{\rm M}$=7.8\%), radius ($σ_{\rm R}$=2.9\%), and thus surface gravity ($σ_{\log g}$=0.01 dex). Thanks to the large red giant sample, we confirm that red-giant-branch (RGB) and helium-core-burning (HeB) stars collectively differ in the distribution of oscillation amplitude, granulation power, and width of power excess, which is mainly due to the mass difference. The distribution of oscillation amplitudes shows an extremely sharp upper edge at fixed $ν_{\rm max}$, which might hold clues to understand the excitation and damping mechanisms of the oscillation modes. We find both oscillation amplitude and granulation power depend on metallicity, causing a spread of 15\% in oscillation amplitudes and a spread of 25\% in granulation power from [Fe/H]=-0.7 to 0.5 dex. Our asteroseismic stellar properties can be used as reliable distance indicators and age proxies for mapping and dating galactic stellar populations observed by Kepler. They will also provide an excellent opportunity to test asteroseismology using Gaia parallaxes, and lift degeneracies in deriving atmospheric parameters in large spectroscopic surveys such as APOGEE and LAMOST.

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arXiv2018

Planetary Candidates Observed by Kepler. VIII. A Fully Automated Catalog With Measured Completeness and Reliability Based on Data Release 25

We present the Kepler Object of Interest (KOI) catalog of transiting exoplanets based on searching four years of Kepler time series photometry (Data Release 25, Q1-Q17). The catalog contains 8054 KOIs of which 4034 are planet candidates with periods between 0.25 and 632 days. Of these candidates, 219 are new and include two in multi-planet systems (KOI-82.06 and KOI-2926.05), and ten high-reliability, terrestrial-size, habitable zone candidates. This catalog was created using a tool called the Robovetter which automatically vets the DR25 Threshold Crossing Events (TCEs, Twicken et al. 2016). The Robovetter also vetted simulated data sets and measured how well it was able to separate TCEs caused by noise from those caused by low signal-to-noise transits. We discusses the Robovetter and the metrics it uses to sort TCEs. For orbital periods less than 100 days the Robovetter completeness (the fraction of simulated transits that are determined to be planet candidates) across all observed stars is greater than 85%. For the same period range, the catalog reliability (the fraction of candidates that are not due to instrumental or stellar noise) is greater than 98%. However, for low signal-to-noise candidates between 200 and 500 days around FGK dwarf stars, the Robovetter is 76.7% complete and the catalog is 50.5% reliable. The KOI catalog, the transit fits and all of the simulated data used to characterize this catalog are available at the NASA Exoplanet Archive.

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arXiv2018

Aldebaran b's temperate past uncovered in planet search data

The nearby red giant Aldebaran is known to host a gas giant planetary companion from decades of ground-based spectroscopic radial velocity measurements. Using Gaussian Process-based Continuous Auto-Regressive Moving Average (CARMA) models, we show that these historic data also contain evidence of acoustic oscillations in the star itself, and verify this result with further dedicated ground-based spectroscopy and space-based photometry with the Kepler Space Telescope. From the frequency of these oscillations we determine the mass of Aldebaran to be $1.16 \pm 0.07 \, M_\odot$, and note that this implies its planet will have been subject to insolation comparable to the Earth for some of the star's main sequence lifetime. Our approach to sparse, irregularly sampled time series astronomical observations has the potential to unlock asteroseismic measurements for thousands of stars in archival data, and push to lower-mass planets around red giant stars.

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arXiv2018

Precision Orbit of $δ$ Delphini and Prospects for Astrometric Detection of Exoplanets

Combining visual and spectroscopic orbits of binary stars leads to a determination of the full 3D orbit, individual masses, and distance to the system. We present a full analysis of the evolved binary system $δ$ Delphini using astrometric data from the MIRC and PAVO instruments on the CHARA long-baseline interferometer, 97 new spectra from the Fairborn Observatory, and 87 unpublished spectra from Lick Observatory. We determine the full set of orbital elements for $δ$ Del, along with masses of $1.78 \pm 0.07$ $M_{\odot}$ and $1.62 \pm 0.07$ $M_{\odot}$ for each component, and a distance of $63.61 \pm 0.89$ pc. These results are important in two contexts: for testing stellar evolution models and defining the detection capabilities for future planet searches. We find that the evolutionary state of this system is puzzling, as our measured flux ratios, radii, and masses imply a $\sim$ 200 Myr age difference between the components using standard stellar evolution models. Possible explanations for this age discrepancy include mass transfer scenarios with a now ejected tertiary companion. For individual measurements taken over a span of 2 years we achieve $<10$ $μ$-arcsecond precision on differential position with 10-minute observations. The high precision of our astrometric orbit suggests that exoplanet detection capabilities are within reach of MIRC at CHARA. We compute exoplanet detection limits around $δ$ Del, and conclude that if this precision is extended to wider systems we should be able to detect most exoplanets $>2$ M$_{J}$ on orbits $>0.75$ AU around individual components of hot binary stars via differential astrometry.

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arXiv2017

The K2-HERMES Survey. I. Planet Candidate Properties from K2 Campaigns 1-3

Accurate and precise radius estimates of transiting exoplanets are critical for understanding their compositions and formation mechanisms. To know the planet, we must know the host star in as much detail as possible. We present first results from the K2-HERMES project, which uses the HERMES multi-object spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope to obtain R$\sim$28,000 spectra of up to 360 stars in one exposure. This ongoing project aims to derive self-consistent spectroscopic parameters for about half of K2 target stars. We present complete stellar parameters and isochrone-derived masses and radii for 46 stars hosting 57 K2 candidate planets in Campaigns 1-3. Our revised host-star radii cast severe doubt on three candidate planets: EPIC\,201407812.01, EPIC\,203070421.01, and EPIC\,202843107.01, all of which now have inferred radii well in excess of the largest known inflated Jovian planets.

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arXiv2017

Modelling Kepler Red Giants in Eclipsing Binaries:Calibrating the Mixing Length Parameter with Asteroseismology

Stellar models rely on a number of free parameters. High-quality observations of eclipsing binary stars observed by Kepler offer a great opportunity to calibrate model parameters for evolved stars. Our study focuses on six Kepler red giants with the goal of calibrating the mixing-length parameter of convection as well as the asteroseismic surface term in models. We introduce a new method to improve the identification of oscillation modes which exploits theoretical frequencies to guide the mode identification ('peak-bagging') stage of the data analysis. Our results indicate that the convective mixing-length parameter (alpha) is about 14% larger for red giants than for the Sun, in agreement with recent results from modelling the APOGEE stars. We found that the asteroseismic surface term (i.e. the frequency offset between the observed and predicted modes) correlates with stellar parameters (Teff, log g) and the mixing-length parameter. This frequency offset generally decreases as giants evolve. The two coefficients a_-1 and a_3 for the inverse and cubic terms that have been used to describe the surface term correction are found to correlate linearly. The effect of the surface term is also seen in the p-g mixed modes, however, established methods for correcting the effect are not able to properly correct the g-dominated modes in late evolved stars.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2017

Synergies between Asteroseismology and Exoplanetary Science

Over the past decade asteroseismology has become a powerful method to systematically characterize host stars and dynamical architectures of exoplanet systems. In this contribution I review current key synergies between asteroseismology and exoplanetary science such as the precise determination of planet radii and ages, the measurement of orbital eccentricities, stellar obliquities and their impact on hot Jupiter formation theories, and the importance of asteroseismology on spectroscopic analyses of exoplanet hosts. I also give an outlook on future synergies such as the characterization of sub-Neptune-size planets orbiting solar-type stars, the study of planet populations orbiting evolved stars, and the determination of ages of intermediate-mass stars hosting directly imaged planets.

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