arXiv subjects

Khalid Barkaoui

Publications and source records attributed to Khalid Barkaoui.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

Another Shipment of Six Short-Period Giant Planets from TESS

We present the discovery and characterization of six short-period, transiting giant planets from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) -- TOI-1811 (TIC 376524552), TOI-2025 (TIC 394050135), TOI-2145 (TIC 88992642), TOI-2152 (TIC 395393265), TOI-2154 (TIC 428787891), & TOI-2497 (TIC 97568467). All six planets orbit bright host stars (8.9 <G< 11.8, 7.7 <K< 10.1). Using a combination of time-series photometric and spectroscopic follow-up observations from the TESS Follow-up Observing Program (TFOP) Working Group, we have determined that the planets are Jovian-sized (R$_{P}$ = 1.00-1.45 R$_{J}$), have masses ranging from 0.92 to 5.35 M$_{J}$, and orbit F, G, and K stars (4753 $<$ T$_{eff}$ $<$ 7360 K). We detect a significant orbital eccentricity for the three longest-period systems in our sample: TOI-2025 b (P = 8.872 days, $e$ = $0.220\pm0.053$), TOI-2145 b (P = 10.261 days, $e$ = $0.182^{+0.039}_{-0.049}$), and TOI-2497 b (P = 10.656 days, $e$ = $0.196^{+0.059}_{-0.053}$). TOI-2145 b and TOI-2497 b both orbit subgiant host stars (3.8 $<$ $\log$ g $<$4.0), but these planets show no sign of inflation despite very high levels of irradiation. The lack of inflation may be explained by the high mass of the planets; $5.35^{+0.32}_{-0.35}$ M$_{\rm J}$ (TOI-2145 b) and $5.21\pm0.52$ M$_{\rm J}$ (TOI-2497 b). These six new discoveries contribute to the larger community effort to use {\it TESS} to create a magnitude-complete, self-consistent sample of giant planets with well-determined parameters for future detailed studies.

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arXiv2023

Three long period transiting giant planets from TESS

We report the discovery and orbital characterization of three new transiting warm giant planets. These systems were initially identified as presenting single transit events in the light curves generated from the full frame images of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Follow-up radial velocity measurements and additional light curves were used to determine the orbital periods and confirm the planetary nature of the candidates. The planets orbit slightly metal-rich late F- and early G-type stars. We find that TOI 4406b has a mass of $M_P$= 0.30 $\pm$ 0.04 $M_J$ , a radius of $R_P$= 1.00 $\pm$ 0.02 $R_J$ , and a low eccentricity orbit (e=0.15 $\pm$ 0.05) with a period of P= 30.08364 $\pm$ 0.00005 d . TOI 2338b has a mass of $M_P$= 5.98 $\pm$ 0.20 $M_J$ , a radius of $R_P$= 1.00 $\pm$ 0.01 $R_J$ , and a highly eccentric orbit (e= 0.676 $\pm$ 0.002 ) with a period of P= 22.65398 $\pm$ 0.00002 d . Finally, TOI 2589b has a mass of $M_P$= 3.50 $\pm$ 0.10 $M_J$ , a radius of $R_P$= 1.08 $\pm$ 0.03 $R_J$ , and an eccentric orbit (e = 0.522 $\pm$ 0.006 ) with a period of P= 61.6277 $\pm$ 0.0002 d . TOI 4406b and TOI 2338b are enriched in metals compared to their host stars, while the structure of TOI 2589b is consistent with having similar metal enrichment to its host star.

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arXiv2023

TOI-3235 b: a transiting giant planet around an M4 dwarf star

We present the discovery of TOI-3235 b, a short-period Jupiter orbiting an M-dwarf with a stellar mass close to the critical mass at which stars transition from partially to fully convective. TOI-3235 b was first identified as a candidate from TESS photometry, and confirmed with radial velocities from ESPRESSO, and ground-based photometry from HATSouth, MEarth-South, TRAPPIST-South, LCOGT, and ExTrA. We find that the planet has a mass of $\mathrm{0.665\pm0.025\,M_J}$ and a radius of $\mathrm{1.017\pm0.044\,R_J}$. It orbits close to its host star, with an orbital period of $\mathrm{2.5926\,d}$, but has an equilibrium temperature of $\mathrm{\approx 604 \, K}$, well below the expected threshold for radius inflation of hot Jupiters. The host star has a mass of $\mathrm{0.3939\pm0.0030\,M_\odot}$, a radius of $\mathrm{0.3697\pm0.0018\,R_\odot}$, an effective temperature of $\mathrm{3389 \, K}$, and a J-band magnitude of $\mathrm{11.706\pm0.025}$. Current planet formation models do not predict the existence of gas giants such as TOI-3235 b around such low-mass stars. With a high transmission spectroscopy metric, TOI-3235 b is one of the best-suited giants orbiting M-dwarfs for atmospheric characterization.

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arXiv2023

TOI-2525 b and c: A pair of massive warm giant planets with a strong transit timing variations revealed by TESS

TOI-2525 is a K-type star with an estimated mass of M = 0.849$_{-0.033}^{+0.024}$ M$_\odot$ and radius of R = 0.785$_{-0.007}^{+0.007}$ R$_\odot$ observed by the TESS mission in 22 sectors (within sectors 1 and 39). The TESS light curves yield significant transit events of two companions, which show strong transit timing variations (TTVs) with a semi-amplitude of a $\sim$6 hours. We performed TTV dynamical, and photo-dynamical light curve analysis of the TESS data, combined with radial velocity (RV) measurements from FEROS and PFS, and we confirmed the planetary nature of these companions. The TOI-2525 system consists of a transiting pair of planets comparable to Neptune and Jupiter with estimated dynamical masses of $m_{\rm b}$ = 0.088$_{-0.004}^{+0.005}$ M$_{\rm Jup.}$, and $m_{\rm c}$ = 0.709$_{-0.033}^{+0.034}$ M$_{\rm Jup.}$, radius of $r_b$ = 0.88$_{-0.02}^{+0.02}$ R$_{\rm Jup.}$ and $r_c$ = 0.98$_{-0.02}^{+0.02}$ R$_{\rm Jup.}$, and with orbital periods of $P_{\rm b}$ = 23.288$_{-0.002}^{+0.001}$ days and $P_{\rm c}$ = 49.260$_{-0.001}^{+0.001}$ days for the inner and the outer planet, respectively. The period ratio is close to the 2:1 period commensurability, but the dynamical simulations of the system suggest that it is outside the mean motion resonance (MMR) dynamical configuration. TOI-2525 b is among the lowest density Neptune-mass planets known to date, with an estimated median density of $ρ_{\rm b}$ = 0.174$_{-0.015}^{+0.016}$ g\,cm$^{-3}$. The TOI-2525 system is very similar to the other K-dwarf systems discovered by TESS, TOI-2202 and TOI-216, which are composed of almost identical K-dwarf primary and two warm giant planets near the 2:1 MMR.

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arXiv2023

TOI-4562 b: A highly eccentric temperate Jupiter analog orbiting a young field star

We report the discovery of TOI-4562 b (TIC-349576261), a Jovian planet orbiting a young F7V-type star, younger than the Praesepe/Hyades clusters (< $700$ Myr). This planet stands out because of its unusually long orbital period for transiting planets with known masses ($P_{\mathrm{orb}}$ = $225.11781^{+0.00025}_{-0.00022}$ days), and because it has a substantial eccentricity ($e$ = $0.76^{+0.02}_{-0.02}$). The location of TOI-4562 near the southern continuous viewing zone of TESS allowed observations throughout 25 sectors, enabling an unambiguous period measurement from TESS alone. Alongside the four available TESS transits, we performed follow-up photometry using the South African Astronomical Observatory node of the Las Cumbres Observatory, and spectroscopy with the CHIRON spectrograph on the 1.5 m SMARTS telescope. We measure a radius of $1.118_{+0.013}^{-0.014}$ $R_{\mathrm{J}}$ and a mass of $2.30^{+0.48}_{-0.47}$ $M_{\mathrm{J}}$ for TOI-4562 b. The radius of the planet is consistent with contraction models describing the early evolution of the size of giant planets. We detect tentative transit timing variations at the $\sim$ 20 min level from five transit events, favouring the presence of a companion that could explain the dynamical history of this system if confirmed by future follow-up observations. With its current orbital configuration, tidal timescales are too long for TOI-4562 b to become a hot-Jupiter via high eccentricity migration, though it is not excluded that interactions with the possible companion could modify TOI-4562 b eccentricity and trigger circularization. The characterisation of more such young systems is essential to set constraints on models describing giant planet evolution.

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arXiv2022

The TESS Grand Unified Hot Jupiter Survey. II. Twenty New Giant Planets

NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission promises to improve our understanding of hot Jupiters by providing an all-sky, magnitude-limited sample of transiting hot Jupiters suitable for population studies. Assembling such a sample requires confirming hundreds of planet candidates with additional follow-up observations. Here, we present twenty hot Jupiters that were detected using TESS data and confirmed to be planets through photometric, spectroscopic, and imaging observations coordinated by the TESS Follow-up Observing Program (TFOP). These twenty planets have orbital periods shorter than 7 days and orbit relatively bright FGK stars ($10.9 < G < 13.0$). Most of the planets are comparable in mass to Jupiter, although there are four planets with masses less than that of Saturn. TOI-3976 b, the longest period planet in our sample ($P = 6.6$ days), may be on a moderately eccentric orbit ($e = 0.18\pm0.06$), while observations of the other targets are consistent with them being on circular orbits. We measured the projected stellar obliquity of TOI-1937A b, a hot Jupiter on a 22.4 hour orbit with the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, finding the planet's orbit to be well-aligned with the stellar spin axis ($|λ| = 4.0\pm3.5^\circ$). We also investigated the possibility that TOI-1937 is a member of the NGC 2516 open cluster, but ultimately found the evidence for cluster membership to be ambiguous. These objects are part of a larger effort to build a complete sample of hot Jupiters to be used for future demographic and detailed characterization work.

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arXiv2022

Occurrence rate of hot Jupiters around early-type M dwarfs based on TESS data

We present an estimate of the occurrence rate of hot Jupiters ($7\ R_{\oplus}\leq R_{p}\leq 2\ R_{J}$, $0.8 \leq P_{b}\leq 10$ days) around early-type M dwarfs based on stars observed by TESS during its Primary Mission. We adopt stellar parameters from the TESS Input Catalog, and construct a sample of 60,819 M dwarfs with $10.5 \leq T_{\rm mag}\leq 13.5$, effective temperature $2900 \leq T_{\rm eff}\leq 4000\ K$ and stellar mass $0.45\leq M_{\ast}\leq 0.65\ M_{\odot}$. We conduct a uninformed transit search using a detection pipeline based on the box least square search and characterize the searching completeness through an injection and recovery experiment. We combine a series of vetting steps including light centroid measurement, odd/even and secondary eclipse analysis, rotation and transit period synchronization tests as well as inspecting the ground-based photometric, spectroscopic and imaging observations. Finally, we find a total of nine planet candidates, all of which are known TESS objects of interest. We obtain an occurrence rate of $0.27\pm0.09\%$ for hot Jupiters around early-type M dwarfs that satisfy our selection criteria. Compared with previous studies, the occurrence rate of hot Jupiters around early-type M dwarfs is smaller than all measurements for FGK stars, although they are consistent within 1--2$σ$. Combining results from transit, radial velocity and microlensing surveys, we find that hot Jupiters around early-type M dwarfs possibly show a steeper decrease in occurrence rate per logarithmic semi-major axis bin (${{\rm d}N}/{\rm d}\log_{10} a$) when compared with FGK stars.

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arXiv2022

SPECULOOS Northern Observatory: searching for red worlds in the northern skies

SPECULOOS is a ground-based transit survey consisting of six identical 1-m robotic telescopes. The immediate goal of the project is to detect temperate terrestrial planets transiting nearby ultracool dwarfs (late M-dwarf stars and brown dwarfs), which could be amenable for atmospheric research with the next generation of telescopes. Here, we report the developments of the northern counterpart of the project - SPECULOOS Northern Observatory, and present its performance during the first three years of operations from mid-2019 to mid-2022. Currently, the observatory consists of one telescope, which is named Artemis. The Artemis telescope demonstrates remarkable photometric precision, allowing it to be ready to detect new transiting terrestrial exoplanets around ultracool dwarfs. Over the period of the first three years after the installation, we observed 96 objects from the SPECULOOS target list for 6000 hours with a typical photometric precision of $0.5\%$, and reaching a precision of $0.2\%$ for relatively bright non-variable targets with a typical exposure time of 25 sec. Our weather downtime (clouds, high wind speed, high humidity, precipitation and/or high concentration of dust particles in the air) over the period of three years was 30% of overall night time. Our actual downtime is 40% because of additional time loss associated with technical problems.

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arXiv2022

The TESS Grand Unified Hot Jupiter Survey. I. Ten TESS Planets

We report the discovery of ten short-period giant planets (TOI-2193A b, TOI-2207 b, TOI-2236 b, TOI-2421 b, TOI-2567 b, TOI-2570 b, TOI-3331 b, TOI-3540A b, TOI-3693 b, TOI-4137 b). All of the planets were identified as planet candidates based on periodic flux dips observed by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The signals were confirmed to be from transiting planets using ground-based time-series photometry, high angular resolution imaging, and high-resolution spectroscopy coordinated with the TESS Follow-up Observing Program. The ten newly discovered planets orbit relatively bright F and G stars ($G < 12.5$,~$T_\mathrm{eff}$ between 4800 and 6200 K). The planets' orbital periods range from 2 to 10~days, and their masses range from 0.2 to 2.2 Jupiter masses. TOI-2421 b is notable for being a Saturn-mass planet and TOI-2567 b for being a ``sub-Saturn'', with masses of $0.322\pm 0.073$ and $0.195\pm 0.030$ Jupiter masses, respectively. In most cases, we have little information about the orbital eccentricities. Two exceptions are TOI-2207 b, which has an 8-day period and a detectably eccentric orbit ($e = 0.17\pm0.05$), and TOI-3693 b, a 9-day planet for which we can set an upper limit of $e < 0.052$. The ten planets described here are the first new planets resulting from an effort to use TESS data to unify and expand on the work of previous ground-based transit surveys in order to create a large and statistically useful sample of hot Jupiters.

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arXiv2022

TESS discovery of a sub-Neptune orbiting a mid-M dwarf TOI-2136

We present the discovery of TOI-2136b, a sub-Neptune planet transiting every 7.85 days a nearby M4.5V-type star, identified through photometric measurements from the TESS mission. The host star is located $33$ pc away with a radius of $R_{\ast} = 0.34\pm0.02\ R_{\odot}$, a mass of $0.34\pm0.02\ M_{\odot}$ and an effective temperature of $\rm 3342\pm100\ K$. We estimate its stellar rotation period to be $75\pm5$ days based on archival long-term photometry. We confirm and characterize the planet based on a series of ground-based multi-wavelength photometry, high-angular-resolution imaging observations, and precise radial velocities from CFHT/SPIRou. Our joint analysis reveals that the planet has a radius of $2.19\pm0.17\ R_{\oplus}$, and a mass measurement of $6.4\pm2.4\ M_{\oplus}$. The mass and radius of TOI2136b is consistent with a broad range of compositions, from water-ice to gas-dominated worlds. TOI-2136b falls close to the radius valley for low-mass stars predicted by the thermally driven atmospheric mass loss models, making it an interesting target for future studies of its interior structure and atmospheric properties.

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arXiv2022

Validation of 13 Hot and Potentially Terrestrial TESS Planets

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be able to probe the atmospheres and surface properties of hot, terrestrial planets via emission spectroscopy. We identify 18 potentially terrestrial planet candidates detected by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) that would make ideal targets for these observations. These planet candidates cover a broad range of planet radii ($R_{\rm p} \sim 0.6 - 2.0 R_\oplus$) and orbit stars of various magnitudes ($K_s = 5.78 - 10.78$, $V = 8.4 - 15.69$) and effective temperatures ($T_{\rm eff }\sim 3000 - 6000$ K). We use ground-based observations collected through the TESS Follow-up Observing Program (TFOP) and two vetting tools -- DAVE and TRICERATOPS -- to assess the reliabilities of these candidates as planets. We validate 13 planets: TOI-206 b, TOI-500 b, TOI-544 b, TOI-833 b, TOI-1075 b, TOI-1411 b, TOI-1442 b, TOI-1693 b, TOI-1860 b, TOI-2260 b, TOI-2411 b, TOI-2427 b, and TOI-2445 b. Seven of these planets (TOI-206 b, TOI-500 b, TOI-1075 b, TOI-1442 b, TOI-2260 b, TOI-2411 b, and TOI-2445 b) are ultra-short-period planets. TOI-1860 is the youngest ($133 \pm 26$ Myr) solar twin with a known planet to date. TOI-2260 is a young ($321 \pm 96$ Myr) G dwarf that is among the most metal-rich ([Fe/H] = $0.22 \pm 0.06$ dex) stars to host an ultra-short-period planet. With an estimated equilibrium temperature of $\sim 2600$ K, TOI-2260 b is also the fourth hottest known planet with $R_{\rm p} < 2 \, R_\oplus$.

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arXiv2022

A Possible Alignment Between the Orbits of Planetary Systems and their Visual Binary Companions

Astronomers do not have a complete picture of the effects of wide-binary companions (semimajor axes greater than 100 AU) on the formation and evolution of exoplanets. We investigate these effects using new data from Gaia EDR3 and the TESS mission to characterize wide-binary systems with transiting exoplanets. We identify a sample of 67 systems of transiting exoplanet candidates (with well-determined, edge-on orbital inclinations) that reside in wide visual binary systems. We derive limits on orbital parameters for the wide-binary systems and measure the minimum difference in orbital inclination between the binary and planet orbits. We determine that there is statistically significant difference in the inclination distribution of wide-binary systems with transiting planets compared to a control sample, with the probability that the two distributions are the same being 0.0037. This implies that there is an overabundance of planets in binary systems whose orbits are aligned with those of the binary. The overabundance of aligned systems appears to primarily have semimajor axes less than 700 AU. We investigate some effects that could cause the alignment and conclude that a torque caused by a misaligned binary companion on the protoplanetary disk is the most promising explanation.

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arXiv2022

NEID Rossiter-McLaughlin Measurement of TOI-1268b: A Young Warm Saturn Aligned with Its Cool Host Star

Close-in gas giants present a surprising range of stellar obliquity, the angle between a planet's orbital axis and its host star's spin axis. It is unclear whether the obliquities reflect the planets' dynamical history (e.g., aligned for in situ formation or disk migration versus misaligned for high-eccentricity tidal migration) or whether other mechanisms (e.g., primordial misalignment or planet-star interactions) are more important in sculpting the obliquity distribution. Here we present the stellar obliquity measurement of TOI-1268 (TIC-142394656, $V_{\rm mag} {\sim} 10.9$), a young K-type dwarf hosting an 8.2-day period, Saturn-sized planet. TOI-1268's lithium abundance and rotation period suggest the system age between the ages of Pleiades cluster (${\sim}120$ Myr) and Praesepe cluster (${\sim}670$ Myr). Using the newly commissioned NEID spectrograph, we constrain the stellar obliquity of TOI-1268 via the Rossiter-McLaughlin (RM) effect from both radial velocity (RV) and Doppler Tomography (DT) signals. The 3$σ$ upper bounds of the projected stellar obliquity $|λ|$ from both models are below 60$^\circ$. The large host star separation ($a/R_\star {\sim} 17$), combined with the system's young age, makes it unlikely that the planet has realigned its host star. The stellar obliquity measurement of TOI-1268 probes the architecture of a young gas giant beyond the reach of tidal realignment ($a/R_\star {\gtrsim} 10$) and reveals an aligned or slightly misaligned system.

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arXiv2021

TOI-3362b: A Proto-Hot Jupiter Undergoing High-Eccentricity Tidal Migration

High-eccentricity tidal migration is a possible way for giant planets to be emplaced in short-period orbits. If it commonly operates, one would expect to catch proto-Hot Jupiters on highly elliptical orbits that are undergoing high-eccentricity tidal migration. As of yet, few such systems have been discovered. Here, we introduce TOI-3362b (TIC-464300749b), an 18.1-day, 5 $M_{\rm Jup}$ planet orbiting a main-sequence F-type star that is likely undergoing high-eccentricity tidal migration. The orbital eccentricity is 0.815$^{+0.023}_{-0.032}$. With a semi-major axis of 0.153$^{+0.002}_{-0.003}$ au, the planet's orbit is expected to shrink to a final orbital radius of 0.051$^{+0.008}_{-0.006}$ au after complete tidal circularization. Several mechanisms could explain the extreme value of the planet's eccentricity, such as planet-planet scattering and secular interactions. Such hypotheses can be tested with follow-up observations of the system, e.g., measuring the stellar obliquity and searching for companions in the system with precise, long-term radial velocity observations. The variation in the planet's equilibrium temperature as it orbits the host star and the tidal heating at periapse make this planet an intriguing target for atmospheric modeling and observation. Because the planet's orbital period of 18.1 days is near the limit of TESS's period sensitivity, even a few such discoveries suggest that proto-Hot Jupiters may be quite common.

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arXiv2021

TOI-674b: an oasis in the desert of exo-Neptunes transiting a nearby M dwarf

We use TESS, Spitzer, ground-based light curves and HARPS spectrograph radial velocity measurements to establish the physical properties of the transiting exoplanet candidate TOI-674b. We perform a joint fit of the light curves and radial velocity time series to measure the mass, radius, and orbital parameters of the candidate. We confirm and characterize TOI-674b, a low-density super-Neptune transiting a nearby M dwarf. The host star (TIC 158588995, $V = 14.2$ mag, $J = 10.3$ mag) is characterized by its M2V spectral type with $\mathrm{M}_\star=0.420\pm 0.010$ M$_\odot$, $\mathrm{R}_\star = 0.420\pm 0.013$ R$_\odot$, and $\mathrm{T}_{\mathrm{eff}} = 3514\pm 57$ K, and is located at a distance $d=46.16 \pm 0.03$ pc. Combining the available transit light curves plus radial velocity measurements and jointly fitting a circular orbit model, we find an orbital period of $1.977143 \pm 3\times 10^{-6}$ days, a planetary radius of $5.25 \pm 0.17$ $\mathrm{R}_\oplus$, and a mass of $23.6 \pm 3.3$ $\mathrm{M}_\oplus$ implying a mean density of $ρ_\mathrm{p} = 0.91 \pm 0.15$ [g cm$^{-3}$]. A non-circular orbit model fit delivers similar planetary mass and radius values within the uncertainties. Given the measured planetary radius and mass, TOI-674b is one of the largest and most massive super-Neptune class planets discovered around an M type star to date. It is also a resident of the so-called Neptunian desert and a promising candidate for atmospheric characterisation using the James Webb Space Telescope.

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arXiv2021

Warm Jupiters in TESS Full-Frame Images: A Catalog and Observed Eccentricity Distribution for Year 1

Warm Jupiters -- defined here as planets larger than 6 Earth radii with orbital periods of 8--200 days -- are a key missing piece in our understanding of how planetary systems form and evolve. It is currently debated whether Warm Jupiters form in situ, undergo disk or high eccentricity tidal migration, or have a mixture of origin channels. These different classes of origin channels lead to different expectations for Warm Jupiters' properties, which are currently difficult to evaluate due to the small sample size. We take advantage of the \TESS survey and systematically search for Warm Jupiter candidates around main-sequence host stars brighter than the \TESS-band magnitude of 12 in the Full-Frame Images in Year 1 of the \TESS Prime Mission data. We introduce a catalog of 55 Warm Jupiter candidates, including 19 candidates that were not originally released as \TESS Objects of Interest (TOIs) by the \TESS team. We fit their \TESS light curves, characterize their eccentricities and transit-timing variations (TTVs), and prioritize a list for ground-based follow-up and \TESS Extended Mission observations. Using hierarchical Bayesian modeling, we find the preliminary eccentricity distributions of our Warm-Jupiter-candidate catalog using a Beta distribution, a Rayleigh distribution, and a two-component Gaussian distribution as the functional forms of the eccentricity distribution. Additional follow-up observations will be required to clean the sample of false positives for a full statistical study, derive the orbital solutions to break the eccentricity degeneracy, and provide mass measurements.

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arXiv2021

Refining the transit timing and photometric analysis of TRAPPIST-1: Masses, radii, densities, dynamics, and ephemerides

We have collected transit times for the TRAPPIST-1 system with the Spitzer Space Telescope over four years. We add to these ground-based, HST and K2 transit time measurements, and revisit an N-body dynamical analysis of the seven-planet system using our complete set of times from which we refine the mass ratios of the planets to the star. We next carry out a photodynamical analysis of the Spitzer light curves to derive the density of the host star and the planet densities. We find that all seven planets' densities may be described with a single rocky mass-radius relation which is depleted in iron relative to Earth, with Fe 21 wt% versus 32 wt% for Earth, and otherwise Earth-like in composition. Alternatively, the planets may have an Earth-like composition, but enhanced in light elements, such as a surface water layer or a core-free structure with oxidized iron in the mantle. We measure planet masses to a precision of 3-5%, equivalent to a radial-velocity (RV) precision of 2.5 cm/sec, or two orders of magnitude more precise than current RV capabilities. We find the eccentricities of the planets are very small; the orbits are extremely coplanar; and the system is stable on 10 Myr timescales. We find evidence of infrequent timing outliers which we cannot explain with an eighth planet; we instead account for the outliers using a robust likelihood function. We forecast JWST timing observations, and speculate on possible implications of the planet densities for the formation, migration and evolution of the planet system.

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arXiv2020

Vetting of 384 TESS Objects of Interest with TRICERATOPS and Statistical Validation of 12 Planet Candidates

We present TRICERATOPS, a new Bayesian tool that can be used to vet and validate TESS Objects of Interest (TOIs). We test the tool on 68 TOIs that have been previously confirmed as planets or rejected as astrophysical false positives. By looking in the false positive probability (FPP) -- nearby false positive probability (NFPP) plane, we define criteria that TOIs must meet to be classified as validated planets (FPP < 0.015 and NFPP < 10^-3), likely planets (FPP < 0.5 and NFPP < 10^-3), and likely nearby false positives (NFPP > 10^-1). We apply this procedure on 384 unclassified TOIs and statistically validate 12, classify 125 as likely planets, and classify 52 as likely nearby false positives. Of the 12 statistically validated planets, 9 are newly validated. TRICERATOPS is currently the only TESS vetting and validation tool that models transits from nearby contaminant stars in addition to the target star. We therefore encourage use of this tool to prioritize follow-up observations that confirm bona fide planets and identify false positives originating from nearby stars.

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