Publications

KELT-9 as an Eclipsing Double-lined Spectroscopic Binary: A Unique and Self-consistent Solution to the System

Transiting hot Jupiters present a unique opportunity to measure absolute planetary masses due to the magnitude of their radial velocity signals and known orbital inclination. Measuring planet mass is critical to understanding atmospheric dynamics and escape under extreme stellar irradiation. Here we present the ultrahot Jupiter system KELT-9 as a double-lined spectroscopic binary. This allows us to directly and empirically constrain the mass of the star and its planetary companion without reference to any theoretical stellar evolutionary models or empirical stellar scaling relations. Using data from the PEPSI, HARPS-N, and TRES spectrographs across multiple epochs, we apply least-squares deconvolution to measure out-of-transit stellar radial velocities. With the PEPSI and HARPS-N data sets, we measure in-transit planet radial velocities using transmission spectroscopy. By fitting the circular orbital solution that captures these Keplerian motions, we recover a planetary dynamical mass of 2.17 ± 0.56 MJ and stellar dynamical mass of 2.11 ± 0.78 M⊙, both of which agree with the discovery paper. Furthermore, we argue that this system, as well as systems like it, are highly overconstrained, providing multiple independent avenues for empirically cross-validating model-independent solutions to the system parameters. We also discuss the implications of this revised mass for studies of atmospheric escape.

A 2D map of transmission spectra over the course of KELT-9 b’s transit for the PEPSI 2018 data set; the blue track is formed by the planet’s atmospheric absorption, while the red track is the Doppler shadow from the RME. The top panel displays fully in-transit observations. The middle panel shows the best-fit model from MCMC sampling, with the Doppler shadow and CLV determined from numerical modeling of the planet’s transit using SME stellar models, while the planet absorption track is a uniform Gaussian signal shifted in velocity according to the best-fit orbital motion of the planet, systemic velocity, and best-fit dayside-to-nightside winds. The bottom panel shows the residuals (data–model).

Read more: Pai Asnodkar et al. 2022, AJ, 163, 40P