The Elephant in the Room: Addressing Issues of Multiplicity in Kepler Occurrence Rates
Abstract
With the completion of the final Kepler planet candidate catalogue, the stage is set for a comprehensive investigation of exoplanet occurrence rates. However, some crucial ingredients are still missing. Here I present work towards solving two pieces of the puzzle. The first is unresolved stellar multiplicity and its impact on detection efficiency and derived planetary parameters. We are undertaking a large, high-resolution multi-wavelength imaging survey of Kepler field stars to place constraints on the frequency of stellar companions; any difference between the Kepler field star multiplicity and the Kepler planet candidate host star multiplicity must be accounted for in order to derive accurate planet occurrence rates. The second is planet multiplicity and the impact of the presence of multiple signals in a light curve on the signal recoverability. Our analysis of the Kepler pixel-level simulated transit injections indicate that subsequently detected planetary signals in a given Kepler light curve are less likely to be detected than if the signals are treated independently. Correcting for this loss of detection efficiency goes a substantial way towards addressing the over-abundance of single-planet systems in the Kepler data when compared to the expectation from multi-planet systems.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #233
- Pub Date:
- January 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AAS...23321806C