Using long-term transit timing to detect terrestrial planets

Abstract

We propose that the presence of additional planets in extrasolar planetary systems can be detected by long-term transit timing studies. If a transiting planet is on an eccentric orbit then the presence of another planet causes a secular advance of the transiting planet's pericenter over and above the effect of general relativity. Although this secular effect is impractical to detect over a small number of orbits, it causes long-term differences in when future transits occur, much like the long-term decay observed in pulsars. Measuring this transit-timing delay would thus allow the detection of either one or more additional planets in the system or the first measurements of non-zero oblateness ($J_2$) of the central stars.

10 pages, 5 figures, accepted by Monthly Notices, updated to reflect accepted version

References in corpus (2)

• The Transit Light Curve Project. V. System Parameters and Stellar Rotation Period of HD 189733
• Evidence for Planet-Planet Scattering in Upsilon Andromedae

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• Analytic Approximations for Transit Light Curve Observables, Uncertainties, and Covariances
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• A transit timing analysis of nine RISE light curves of the exoplanet system TrES-3
• Updated parameters for the transiting exoplanet WASP-3b using RISE, a new fast camera for the Liverpool Telescope
• Periastron Precession Measurements in Transiting Extrasolar Planetary Systems at the Level of General Relativity
• MOST Spacebased Photometry of the Transiting Exoplanet System HD 189733: Precise Timing Measurements for Transits Across an Active Star
• Stellar proper motion and the timing of planetary transits
• MOST Spacebased Photometry of the Transiting Exoplanet System HD 209458: Transit Timing to Search for Additional Planets
• Detection of period variations in extrasolar transiting planet OGLE-TR-111b
• Transits and secondary eclipses of HD 189733 with Spitzer
• Measuring accurate transit parameters
• Long-Term Evolution in Transit Duration of Extrasolar Planets from Magnetic Activity in their Parent Stars