Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2006-09-14
Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc.373:799-810,2006
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
14 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS
Scientific paper
10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.11074.x
We present a fast and efficient hybrid algorithm for selecting exoplanetary candidates from wide-field transit surveys. Our method is based on the widely-used SysRem and Box Least-Squares (BLS) algorithms. Patterns of systematic error that are common to all stars on the frame are mapped and eliminated using the SysRem algorithm. The remaining systematic errors caused by spatially localised flat-fielding and other errors are quantified using a boxcar-smoothing method. We show that the dimensions of the search-parameter space can be reduced greatly by carrying out an initial BLS search on a coarse grid of reduced dimensions, followed by Newton-Raphson refinement of the transit parameters in the vicinity of the most significant solutions. We illustrate the method's operation by applying it to data from one field of the SuperWASP survey, comprising 2300 observations of 7840 stars brighter than V=13.0. We identify 11 likely transit candidates. We reject stars that exhibit significant ellipsoidal variations indicative of a stellar-mass companion. We use colours and proper motions from the 2MASS and USNO-B1.0 surveys to estimate the stellar parameters and the companion radius. We find that two stars showing unambiguous transit signals pass all these tests, and so qualify for detailed high-resolution spectroscopic follow-up.
Christian Damian Joseph
Clarkson William I.
Collier Cameron Andrew
Enoch B.
Evans Aaron
No associations
LandOfFree
A fast hybrid algorithm for exoplanetary transit searches does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with A fast hybrid algorithm for exoplanetary transit searches, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and A fast hybrid algorithm for exoplanetary transit searches will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-409632