Bibcode
Borkovits, T.; Hajdu, T.; Sztakovics, J.; Rappaport, S.; Levine, A.; Bíró, I. B.; Klagyivik, P.
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 455, Issue 4, p.4136-4165
Advertised on:
2
2016
Citations
180
Refereed citations
170
Description
We produce and analyse eclipse time variation (ETV) curves for some 2600
Kepler binaries. We find good to excellent evidence for a third body in
222 systems via either the light-travel-time (LTTE) or dynamical effect
delays. Approximately half of these systems have been discussed in
previous work, while the rest are newly reported here. Via detailed
analysis of the ETV curves using high-level analytic approximations, we
are able to extract system masses and information about the
three-dimensional characteristics of the triple for 62 systems which
exhibit both LTTE and dynamical delays; for the remaining 160 systems,
we give improved LTTE solutions. New techniques of pre-processing the
flux time series are applied to eliminate false positive triples and to
enhance the ETV curves. The set of triples with outer orbital periods
shorter than ˜2000 d is now sufficiently numerous for meaningful
statistical analysis. We find that (i) there is a peak near
im ≃ 40° in the distribution of the triple versus
inner binary mutual inclination angles that provides strong confirmation
of the operation of Kozai-Lidov cycles with tidal friction; (ii) the
median eccentricity of the third-body orbits is e2 = 0.35;
(iii) there is a deficit of triple systems with binary periods ≲1 d
and outer periods between ˜50 and 200 d which might help guide the
refinement of theories of the formation and evolution of close binaries;
and (iv) the substantial fraction of Kepler binaries which have
third-body companions is consistent with a very large fraction of all
binaries being part of triples.