catwoman: A transit modelling Python package for asymmetric light curves
Abstract
When exoplanets pass in front of their stars, they imprint a transit signature on the stellar light curve which to date has been assumed to be symmetric in time, owing to the planet being modelled as a circular area occulting the stellar surface. However, this signature might be asymmetric due to different temperature/pressure and/or chemical compositions in the different terminator regions of the transiting planet. catwoman is a Python package that allows to model these asymmetric transit lightcurves, calculating lightcurves for any radially symmetric stellar limb darkening law, and where planets are modelled as two semi-circles, of different radii, using the integration algorithm developed in arXiv:1507.08285 and implemented in the batman library, from which catwoman builds upon.
- Publication:
-
The Journal of Open Source Software
- Pub Date:
- November 2020
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2106.15643
- Bibcode:
- 2020JOSS....5.2382J
- Keywords:
-
- C;
- exoplanets;
- Python;
- transit;
- C++;
- astronomy;
- Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 3 pages, 1 figure. Published in JOSS