Yip, KH;
Tsiaras, A;
Waldmann, IP;
Tinetti, G;
(2020)
Integrating Light Curve and Atmospheric Modeling of Transiting Exoplanets.
The Astronomical Journal
, 160
(4)
, Article 171. 10.3847/1538-3881/abaabc.
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Abstract
Spectral retrieval techniques are currently our best tool to interpret the observed exoplanet atmospheric data. Said techniques retrieve the optimal atmospheric components and parameters by identifying the best fit to an observed transmission/emission spectrum. Over the past decade, our understanding of remote worlds in our galaxy has flourished thanks to the use of increasingly sophisticated spectral retrieval techniques and the collective effort of the community working on exoplanet atmospheric models. A new generation of instruments in space and from the ground is expected to deliver higher quality data in the next decade; it is therefore paramount to upgrade current models and improve their reliability, their completeness, and the numerical speed with which they can be run. In this paper, we address the issue of reliability of the results provided by retrieval models in the presence of systematics of unknown origin. More specifically, we demonstrate that if we fit directly individual light curves at different wavelengths (L-retrieval), instead of fitting transit or eclipse depths, as it is currently done (S-retrieval), the said methodology is more sensitive against astrophysical and instrumental noise. This new approach is tested, in particular, when discrepant simulated observations from Hubble Space Telescope/Wide Field Camera 3 and Spitzer/IRAC are combined. We find that while S-retrievals converge to an incorrect solution without any warning, L-retrievals are able to flag potential discrepancies between the data sets.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Integrating Light Curve and Atmospheric Modeling of Transiting Exoplanets |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3847/1538-3881/abaabc |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/abaabc |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Astronomy data modeling; Astronomy data analysis; Exoplanet atmospheres; Bayesian statistics; Transit instruments |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10111149 |
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