Physics / Fizik
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11147/6
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Article Citation - WoS: 172Citation - Scopus: 181Possible Disintegrating Short-Period Super-Mercury Orbiting Kic 12557548(IOP Publishing Ltd., 2012) Rappaport, S.; Levine, A.; Chiang, E.; El Mellah, I.; Jenkins, J.; Kalomeni, Belinda; Kite, E. S.; Kotson, M.; Nelson, L.; Rousseau-Nepton, L.; Tran, K.We report on the discovery of stellar occultations, observed with Kepler, which recur periodically at 15.685 hr intervals, but which vary in depth from a maximum of 1.3% to a minimum that can be less than 0.2%. The star that is apparently being occulted is KIC 12557548, a V = 16 mag K dwarf with T eff, s ≃ 4400 K. The out-of-occultation behavior shows no evidence for ellipsoidal light variations, indicating that the mass of the orbiting object is less than 3 M J (for an orbital period of 15.7 hr). Because the eclipse depths are highly variable, they cannot be due solely to transits of a single planet with a fixed size. We discuss but dismiss a scenario involving a binary giant planet whose mutual orbit plane precesses, bringing one of the planets into and out of a grazing transit. This scenario seems ruled out by the dynamical instability that would result from such a configuration. We also briefly consider an eclipsing binary, possibly containing an accretion disk, that either orbits KIC 12557548 in a hierarchical triple configuration or is nearby on the sky, but we find such a scenario inadequate to reproduce the observations. The much more likely explanation - but one which still requires more quantitative development - involves macroscopic particles escaping the atmosphere of a slowly disintegrating planet not much larger than Mercury in size. The particles could take the form of micron-sized pyroxene or aluminum oxide dust grains. The planetary surface is hot enough to sublimate and create a high-Z atmosphere; this atmosphere may be loaded with dust via cloud condensation or explosive volcanism. Atmospheric gas escapes the planet via a Parker-type thermal wind, dragging dust grains with it. We infer a mass-loss rate from the observations of order 1 M ⊕Gyr-1, with a dust-to-gas ratio possibly of order unity. For our fiducial 0.1 M ⊕ planet (twice the mass of Mercury), the evaporation timescale may be 0.2 Gyr. Smaller mass planets are disfavored because they evaporate still more quickly, as are larger mass planets because they have surface gravities too strong to sustain outflows with the requisite mass-loss rates. The occultation profile evinces an ingress-egress asymmetry that could reflect a comet-like dust tail trailing the planet; we present simulations of such a tail.Article Citation - WoS: 147Citation - Scopus: 147Triple-Star Candidates Among the Kepler Binaries(IOP Publishing Ltd., 2013) Rappaport, S.; Deck, K.; Levine, A.; Borkovits, T.; Carter, J.; El Mellah, I.; Sanchis-Ojeda, R.; Kalomeni, BelindaWe present the results of a search through the photometric database of Kepler eclipsing binaries looking for evidence of hierarchical triple-star systems. The presence of a third star orbiting the binary can be inferred from eclipse timing variations. We apply a simple algorithm in an automated determination of the eclipse times for all 2157 binaries. The "calculated" eclipse times, based on a constant period model, are subtracted from those observed. The resulting O-C (observed minus calculated times) curves are then visually inspected for periodicities in order to find triple-star candidates. After eliminating false positives due to the beat frequency between the ∼1/2 hr Kepler cadence and the binary period, 39 candidate triple systems were identified. The periodic O-C curves for these candidates were then fit for contributions from both the classical Roemer delay and so-called physical delay, in an attempt to extract a number of the system parameters of the triple. We discuss the limitations of the information that can be inferred from these O-C curves without further supplemental input, e.g., ground-based spectroscopy. Based on the limited range of orbital periods for the triple-star systems to which this search is sensitive, we can extrapolate to estimate that at least 20% of all close binaries have tertiary companions. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..Article Citation - WoS: 91Citation - Scopus: 88The Anticorrelated Nature of the Primary and Secondary Eclipse Timing Variations for the Kepler Contact Binaries(IOP Publishing Ltd., 2013) Tran, K.; Levine, A.; Rappaport, S.; Borkovits, T.; Csizmadia, Sz.; Kalomeni, BelindaWe report a study of the eclipse timing variations in contact binary systems, using long-cadence lightcurves from the Kepler archive. As a first step, observed minus calculated (O-C) curves were produced for both the primary and secondary eclipses of some 2000 Kepler binaries. We find ∼390 short-period binaries with O-C curves that exhibit (1) random walk-like variations or quasi-periodicities, with typical amplitudes of ±200-300 s, and (2) anticorrelations between the primary and secondary eclipse timing variations. We present a detailed analysis and results for 32 of these binaries with orbital periods in the range of 0.35 ± 0.05 days. The anticorrelations observed in their O-C curves cannot be explained by a model involving mass transfer, which, among other things, requires implausibly high rates of ∼0.01 MȮ yr-1. We show that the anticorrelated behavior, the amplitude of the O-C delays, and the overall random walk-like behavior can be explained by the presence of a starspot that is continuously visible around the orbit and slowly changes its longitude on timescales of weeks to months. The quasi-periods of ∼50-200 days observed in the O-C curves suggest values for k, the coefficient of the latitude dependence of the stellar differential rotation, of ∼0.003-0.013.