Detection of the secondary eclipse of Qatar-1b in the Ks band

Astronomy and Astrophysics EDP Sciences 595 (2016) A61

Authors:

Patricia Cruz, David Barrado, Jorge Lillo-Box, Marcos Diaz, Jayne Birkby, Mercedes López-Morales, Jonathan J Fortney

Abstract:

Aims. Qatar-1b is a close-orbiting hot Jupiter (Rp ≃ 1.18 RJMp ≃ 1.33 MJ) around a metal-rich K-dwarf, with orbital separation and period of 0.023 AU and 1.42 days. We have observed the secondary eclipse of this exoplanet in the Ks band with the objective of deriving a brightness temperature for the planet and providing further constraints to the orbital configuration of the system.

Methods. We obtained near-infrared photometric data from the ground by using the OMEGA2000 instrument at the 3.5 m telescope at Calar Alto (Spain) in staring mode, with the telescope defocused. We have used principal component analysis (PCA) to identify correlated systematic trends in the data. A Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis was performed to model the correlated systematics and fit for the secondary eclipse of Qatar-1b using a previously developed occultation model. We adopted the prayer bead method to assess the effect of red noise on the derived parameters.

Results. We measured a secondary eclipse depth of 0.196%+ 0.071%−0.051%, which indicates a brightness temperature in the Ks band for the planet of 1885+ 212-168 K. We also measured a small deviation in the central phase of the secondary eclipse of −0.0079+ 0.0162-0.0043, which leads to a value for ecosω of −0.0123+ 0.0252-0.0067. However, this last result needs to be confirmed with more data.

Detection of secondary eclipses of WASP-10b and Qatar-1b in the Ks band and the correlation between Ks-band temperature and stellar activity.

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union Cambridge University Press (CUP) 12:S328 (2016) 363-370

Authors:

Patricia Cruz, David Barrado, Jorge Lillo-Box, Marcos Diaz, Mercedes López-Morales, Jayne Birkby, Jonathan J Fortney, Simon Hodgkin

Low-mass eclipsing binaries in the WFCAM Transit Survey

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union Cambridge University Press (CUP) 12:S328 (2016) 124-126

Authors:

Patricia Cruz, Marcos Diaz, David Barrado, Jayne Birkby

On the energy dissipation rate at the inner edge of circumbinary discs

(2016)

Authors:

Caroline Terquem, John CB Papaloizou

The slow spin of the young substellar companion GQ Lupi b and its orbital configuration

Astronomy and Astrophysics EDP Sciences 593:September 2016 (2016) A74

Authors:

Henriette Schwarz, Christian Ginski, Remco J de Kok, Ignas AG Snellen, Matteo Brogi, Jayne L Birkby

Abstract:

The spin of a planet or brown dwarf is related to the accretion process, and therefore studying spin can help promote our understanding of the formation of such objects. We present the projected rotational velocity of the young substellar companion GQ Lupi b, along with its barycentric radial velocity. The directly imaged exoplanet or brown dwarf companion joins a small but growing ensemble of wide-orbit, substellar companions with a spin measurement. The GQ Lupi system was observed at high spectral resolution (R ~ 100 000), and in the analysis we made use of both spectral and spatial filtering to separate the signal of the companion from that of the host star. We detect both CO (S/N = 11.6) and H2O (S/N = 7.7) in the atmosphere of GQ Lupi b by cross-correlating with model spectra, and we find it to be a slow rotator with a projected rotational velocity of 5.3 +0.9 -1.0 km s -1 . The slow rotation is most likely due to its young age of <5 Myr, as it is still in the process of accreting material and angular momentum. We measure the barycentric radial velocity of GQ Lupi b to be 2.0 ± 0.4 km s-1, and discuss the allowed orbital configurations and their implications for formation scenarios for GQ Lupi b.