Single transit survey in CoRoT, Kepler, K2 and TESS light curves

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Martin Pätzold
• Subject Area: Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 446254893

Most confirmed planets known today were detected in high resolution stellar light curves of the space missions CoRoT, Kepler, K2 and TESS. These light curves are searched for candidates by automatic detection pipelines because of the large data amount. Most detection methods make use of the periodicity of the transits in the light curve using box leased square (BLS) algorithm or frequency analysis (e.g. FFT, wavelet analysis). These algorithms usually need three transits at least for a verified detection (light curves more than two times the length of the orbital period of the transit). Planets with only one transit visible in the light curve (single transits, mono transits) are usually not detected with these automatic pipelines. Single transits of binaries or large planets (Jupiter planets) were found by visual search or by analysis of detections in multi-planet systems. Most of the planetary single transits of shallow depth (Neptune, Super-Earth planets) are still hidden in the archived data. In particular the relatively short light curves of K2 and TESS must include many single transits of planets up to a period of 100 days. It is proposed to search the available archived data of CoRoT, Kepler, K2 and TESS for unknown single transits of especially small planets. An existing transient search algorithm based on wavelets (SINGLETRANS) shall be developed into a fully automatic pipeline. The additional new candidates shall be analyzed and the orbital parameters shall be estimated. New detected candidates shall be added to the candidate list to populate the area of planetary candidates with larger orbital periods. The SINGLETRANS pipeline shall be suitable to detect also periodic and ‘quasi periodic’ (strong TTV, circum-binary planets) transits. An extensive statistical analysis of the detected candidate ensemble and a comparison between the results of SINGLETRANS and the widely used BLS algorithm shall be performed. Suitable candidates shall be selected for follow-up inside the KESPRINT collaboration. The additional number of detected candidates with larger orbital periods shall help to understand the diversity of exoplanets.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1992: Exploring the diversity of extrasolar planets