Fishing for Planets: A Comparative Analysis of EPRV Survey Performance in the Presence of Correlated Noise

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Gupta, Arvind F., Bedell, Megan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Gupta, Arvind F.
Bedell, Megan
author_facet Gupta, Arvind F.
Bedell, Megan
contents With dedicated exoplanet surveys underway for multiple extreme precision radial velocity (EPRV) instruments, the near-future prospects of RV exoplanet science are promising. These surveys' generous time allocations are expected to facilitate the discovery of Earth analogs around bright, nearby Sun-like stars. But survey success will depend critically on the choice of observing strategy, which will determine the survey's ability to mitigate known sources of noise and extract low-amplitude exoplanet signals. Here, we present an analysis of the Fisher information content of simulated EPRV surveys, accounting for the most recent advances in our understanding of stellar variability on both short and long timescales (i.e., oscillations and granulation within individual nights, and activity-induced variations across multiple nights). In this analysis, we capture the correlated nature of stellar variability by parameterizing these signals with Gaussian Process kernels. We describe the underlying simulation framework as well as the physical interpretation of the Fisher information content, and we evaluate the efficacy of EPRV survey strategies that have been presented in the literature. We explore and compare strategies for scheduling observations over various timescales and we make recommendations to optimize survey performance for the detection of Earth-like exoplanets.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2303_14571
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Fishing for Planets: A Comparative Analysis of EPRV Survey Performance in the Presence of Correlated Noise
Gupta, Arvind F.
Bedell, Megan
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
With dedicated exoplanet surveys underway for multiple extreme precision radial velocity (EPRV) instruments, the near-future prospects of RV exoplanet science are promising. These surveys' generous time allocations are expected to facilitate the discovery of Earth analogs around bright, nearby Sun-like stars. But survey success will depend critically on the choice of observing strategy, which will determine the survey's ability to mitigate known sources of noise and extract low-amplitude exoplanet signals. Here, we present an analysis of the Fisher information content of simulated EPRV surveys, accounting for the most recent advances in our understanding of stellar variability on both short and long timescales (i.e., oscillations and granulation within individual nights, and activity-induced variations across multiple nights). In this analysis, we capture the correlated nature of stellar variability by parameterizing these signals with Gaussian Process kernels. We describe the underlying simulation framework as well as the physical interpretation of the Fisher information content, and we evaluate the efficacy of EPRV survey strategies that have been presented in the literature. We explore and compare strategies for scheduling observations over various timescales and we make recommendations to optimize survey performance for the detection of Earth-like exoplanets.
title Fishing for Planets: A Comparative Analysis of EPRV Survey Performance in the Presence of Correlated Noise
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.14571