Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: Transit timing variations (TTVs) have proven to be a powerful technique for confirming Kepler planet candidates, for detecting non-transiting planets, and for constraining the masses and orbital elements of multi-planet systems. These TTV applications often require the numerical integration of orbits for computation of transit times (as well as impact parameters and durations); frequently tens of millions to billions of simulations are required when running statistical analyses of the planetary system properties. We have created a fast code for transit timing computation, TTVFast, which uses a symplectic integrator with a Keplerian interpolator for the calculation of transit times. The speed comes at the expense of accuracy in the calculated times, but the accuracy lost is largely unnecessary, as transit times do not need to be calculated to accuracies significantly smaller than the measurement uncertainties on the times. The time step can be tuned to give sufficient precision for any particular system. We find a speed-up of at least an order of magnitude relative to dynamical integrations with high precision using a Bulirsch–Stoer integrator.
Source: The Astrophysical Journal
Authors: Katherine M. Deck, Eric Agol, Matthew J. Holman, David Nesvorný
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Awards: CAREER: Prospecting for planets, G1229077676, APPLYING THE METHOD OF TRANSIT TIMING VARIATIONS TO KEPLER\NMEASURING THE MASSES OF MANY OF THE KEPL, G3535841242, Planet Detection and Characterization from Transit Timing Variations, THE TRANSIT LIGHT CURVE PROJECT: OUR MOST INTIMATE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT EXOPLANETS HAS COME FROM THE PLANETS THAT UNDERGO TRANSITS AND OCCULTATIONS. WE PR
OpenAlex ID: W2064925361