The Weird Detector: Flagging periodic, coherent signals of arbitrary shape in time series photometry. (arXiv:1903.09213v1 [astro-ph.EP])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Wheeler_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">Adam Wheeler</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Kipping_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">David Kipping</a>
By design, model-based approaches for flagging transiting exoplanets in light
curves, such as boxed least squares, excel at detecting planets with low S/N at
the expense of finding signals that are not well described by the assumed
model, such as self-lensing binaries, disintegrating or evaporating planets, or
planets with large rings. So far, such signals have typically been found
through visual searches by professional or citizen scientists, or by inspection
of the photometric power-spectra. We present a nonparametric detection
algorithm, for short duty-cycle periodic signals in photometric time series
based on phase dispersion minimization. We apply our code to 161,786 Kepler
sources and detect 18 new periodic signals consistent with heartbeat
binaries/planets, 4 new singly-transiting systems, and 2 new doubly-transiting
systems. We show that our code is able to recover the majority of known Kepler
objects of interest (KOIs) to high confidence, as well as more unusual events
such as Boyajian’s star and a comet passing through the Kepler field.
Nonparametric signal-flagging techniques, such as the one presented here, will
become increasingly valuable with the coming data from TESS and future transit
surveys as the volume of data available to us exceeds that which can be
feasibly examined manually.
By design, model-based approaches for flagging transiting exoplanets in light
curves, such as boxed least squares, excel at detecting planets with low S/N at
the expense of finding signals that are not well described by the assumed
model, such as self-lensing binaries, disintegrating or evaporating planets, or
planets with large rings. So far, such signals have typically been found
through visual searches by professional or citizen scientists, or by inspection
of the photometric power-spectra. We present a nonparametric detection
algorithm, for short duty-cycle periodic signals in photometric time series
based on phase dispersion minimization. We apply our code to 161,786 Kepler
sources and detect 18 new periodic signals consistent with heartbeat
binaries/planets, 4 new singly-transiting systems, and 2 new doubly-transiting
systems. We show that our code is able to recover the majority of known Kepler
objects of interest (KOIs) to high confidence, as well as more unusual events
such as Boyajian’s star and a comet passing through the Kepler field.
Nonparametric signal-flagging techniques, such as the one presented here, will
become increasingly valuable with the coming data from TESS and future transit
surveys as the volume of data available to us exceeds that which can be
feasibly examined manually.
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