Kavli Affiliate: Avi Shporer
| First 5 Authors: Prajwal Niraula, Avi Shporer, Ian Wong, Julien de Wit,
| Summary:
Space-based photometric missions widely use statistical validation tools for
vetting transiting planetary candidates, particularly when other traditional
methods of planet confirmation are unviable. In this paper, we refute the
planetary nature of three previously validated planets — Kepler-854~b,
Kepler-840~b, and Kepler-699~b — and possibly a fourth, Kepler-747~b, using
updated stellar parameters from Gaia and phase-curve analysis. In all four
cases, the inferred physical radii rule out their planetary nature given the
stellar radiation the companions receive. For Kepler-854~b, the mass derived
from the host star’s ellipsoidal variation, which had not been part of the
original vetting procedure, similarly points to a non-planetary value. To
contextualize our understanding of the phase curve for stellar mass companions
in particular and extend our understanding of high-order harmonics, we examine
Kepler eclipsing binaries with periods between 1.5 and 10 days. Using a sample
of 20 systems, we report a strong power-law relation between the second cosine
harmonic of the phase-curve signal and the higher cosine harmonics, which
supports the hypothesis that those signals arise from the tidal interaction
between the binary components. We find that the ratio between the second and
third-harmonic amplitudes is $2.24 pm 0.48$, in good agreement with the
expected value of 2.4 from the classical formalism for the ellipsoidal
distortion.
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