Optimizing exoplanet transit searches around low-mass stars with inclination constraints

• Published in: Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin) Vol. 537; p. 1
• Main Authors: Herrero, E, Ribas, I, Jordi, C, Guinan, E F, Engle, S G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.01.2012
• ISSN: 0004-6361; 1432-0746

This study aims to investigate a method to increase the efficiency of a targeted exoplanet search with the transit technique by preselecting a subset of candidates from large catalogs of stars. The authors used activity-rotation velocity relations for low-mass stars with a convective envelope to study the dependence of the position in the activity-v sin i diagram on the stellar axis inclination. The authors present the method to generate the simulated star catalog and the subsequent statistics to find the highly inclined stars from real catalogs using the activity-v sin i diagram. Several catalogs from the literature are analyzed and a subsample of stars with the highest probability of being equator-on is presented. Assuming spin-orbit alignment, the efficiency of an exoplanet transit search in the resulting subsample of probably highly inclined stars is estimated to be two to three times higher than with a general search without preselection.