Speaker
Benjamin Montet
(University of New South Wales)
Description
Of the thousands of known exoplanets, only fifteen are circumbinary, oribiting two stars instead of one. All of these systems have been detected via transit photometry, which requires a low mutual inclination for all three objects to eclipse. However, over a long time baseline a wide planetary-mass companion to a binary system will induce orbital precession, modulating the relative eclipse timing of the host stars. We are conducting a search for planetary systems by identifying systems which have detectable apsidal precession over decades between observations with WASP, KELT, TESS, and others. I will present an overview of our survey, the first candidates, and future plans to confirm and characterise these potential planets.
