An Apodized Kepler Periodogram for Separating Planetary and Stellar Activity Signals

Abstract

A new apodized Keplerian (AK) model is proposed for the analysis of precision radial velocity (RV) data to model both planetary and stellar activity (SA) induced RV signals. A symmetrical Gaussian apodization function with unknown width and center can distinguish planetary signals from SA signals on the basis of the span of the apodization window. The general model for $m$ apodized Keplerian signals includes a linear regression term between RV and the stellar activity diagnostic $\log (R^{\prime }hk)$, as well as an extra Gaussian noise term with unknown standard deviation. The model parameters are explored using a Bayesian fusion MCMC code. A differential version of the Generalized Lomb-Scargle periodogram that employs a control diagnostic provides an additional way of distinguishing SA signals and helps guide the choice of new periods. Results are reported for a recent international RV blind challenge which included multiple state of the art simulated data sets supported by a variety of stellar activity diagnostics. In the current implementation, the AK method achieved a reduction in SA noise by a factor of approximately 6. Final parameter estimates for the planetary candidates are derived from fits that include AK signals to model the SA components and simple Keplerians to model the planetary candidates. Preliminary results are also reported for AK models augmented by a moving average component that allows for correlations in the residuals.

30 pages, 39 figures, MNRAS in press 13 Jan. 2016

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• Stable Solar Periodicities: The Time Stability