Person:

Torres, Guillermo

Spectroscopic and eclipsing binary systems offer the best means for determining accurate physical properties of stars, including their masses and radii. The data available for low-mass stars have yielded firm evidence that stellar structure models predict smaller radii and higher effective temperatures than observed, but the number of systems with detailed analyses is still small. In this paper, we present a complete reanalysis of one of such eclipsing systems, CM Dra, composed of two dM4.5 stars. New and existing light curves as well as a radial velocity curve are modeled to measure the physical properties of both components. The masses and radii determined for the components of CM Dra are M 1 = 0.2310 ± 0.0009 M sun, M 2 = 0.2141 ± 0.0010M sun, R 1 = 0.2534 ± 0.0019 R sun, and R 2 = 0.2396 ± 0.0015 R sun. With relative uncertainties well below the 1% level, these values constitute the most accurate properties to date for fully convective stars. This makes CM Dra a valuable benchmark for testing theoretical models. In comparing our measurements with theory, we confirm the discrepancies previously reported for other low-mass eclipsing binaries. These discrepancies seem likely to be due to the effects of magnetic activity. We find that the orbit of this system is slightly eccentric, and we have made use of eclipse timings spanning three decades to infer the apsidal motion and other related properties.

The Kepler mission is uniquely suited to study the frequencies of extrasolar planets. This goal requires knowledge of the incidence of false positives such as eclipsing binaries in the background of the targets, or physically bound to them, which can mimic the photometric signal of a transiting planet. We perform numerical simulations of the Kepler targets and of physical companions or stars in the background to predict the occurrence of astrophysical false positives detectable by the mission. Using real noise level estimates, we compute the number and characteristics of detectable eclipsing pairs involving main-sequence stars and non-main-sequence stars or planets, and we quantify the fraction of those that would pass the Kepler candidate vetting procedure. By comparing their distribution with that of the Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs) detected during the first six quarters of operation of the spacecraft, we infer the false positive rate of Kepler and study its dependence on spectral type, candidate planet size, and orbital period. We find that the global false positive rate of Kepler is 9.4%, peaking for giant planets (6-22 R ⊕) at 17.7%, reaching a low of 6.7% for small Neptunes (2-4 R ⊕), and increasing again for Earth-size planets (0.8-1.25 R ⊕) to 12.3%. Most importantly, we also quantify and characterize the distribution and rate of occurrence of planets down to Earth size with no prior assumptions on their frequency, by subtracting from the population of actual Kepler candidates our simulated population of astrophysical false positives. We find that 16.5% ± 3.6% of main-sequence FGK stars have at least one planet between 0.8 and 1.25 R ⊕ with orbital periods up to 85 days. This result is a significant step toward the determination of eta-earth, the occurrence of Earth-like planets in the habitable zone of their parent stars. There is no significant dependence of the rates of planet occurrence between 0.8 and 4 Earth radii with spectral type. In the process, we also derive a prescription for the signal recovery rate of Kepler that enables a good match to both the KOI size and orbital period distribution, as well as their signal-to-noise distribution.