Insights on the Spectral Signatures of Stellar Activity and Planets from PCA

Allen B. Davis, Jessi Cisewski, Xavier Dumusque, Debra A. Fischer, Eric B. Ford

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

48 Scopus citations

Abstract

Photospheric velocities and stellar activity features such as spots and faculae produce measurable radial velocity signals that currently obscure the detection of sub-meter-per-second planetary signals. However, photospheric velocities are imprinted differently in a high-resolution spectrum than are Keplerian Doppler shifts. Photospheric activity produces subtle differences in the shapes of absorption lines due to differences in how temperature or pressure affects the atomic transitions. In contrast, Keplerian Doppler shifts affect every spectral line in the same way. With a high enough signal-to-noise (S/N) and resolution, statistical techniques can exploit differences in spectra to disentangle the photospheric velocities and detect lower-amplitude exoplanet signals. We use simulated disk-integrated time-series spectra and principal component analysis (PCA) to show that photospheric signals introduce spectral line variability that is distinct from that of Doppler shifts. We quantify the impact of instrumental resolution and S/N for this work.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number59
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume846
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 1 2017

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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