Robotic Laser Adaptive Optics Imaging of 715 Kepler Exoplanet Candidates Using Robo-AO

Creators: Law, Nicholas M.; Morton, Tim; Baranec, Christoph; Riddle, Reed; Ravichandran, Ganesh; Ziegler, Carl; Johnson, John Asher; Tendulkar, Shriharsh P.; Bui, Khanh; Burse, Mahesh P.; Das, H. K.; Dekany, Richard G.; Kulkarni, Shrinivas; Punnadi, Sujit; Ramaprakash, A. N.

Abstract

The Robo-AO Kepler Planetary Candidate Survey is observing every Kepler planet candidate host star with laser adaptive optics imaging to search for blended nearby stars, which may be physically associated companions and/or responsible for transit false positives. In this paper, we present the results from the 2012 observing season, searching for stars close to 715 Kepler planet candidate hosts. We find 53 companions, 43 of which are new discoveries. We detail the Robo-AO survey data reduction methods including a method of using the large ensemble of target observations as mutual point-spread-function references, along with a new automated companion-detection algorithm designed for large adaptive optics surveys. Our survey is sensitive to objects from ≈0."15 to 2."5 separation, with magnitude differences up to Δm ≈ 6. We measure an overall nearby-star probability for Kepler planet candidates of 7.4% ± 1.0%, and calculate the effects of each detected nearby star on the Kepler-measured planetary radius. We discuss several Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs) of particular interest, including KOI-191 and KOI-1151, which are both multi-planet systems with detected stellar companions whose unusual planetary system architecture might be best explained if they are "coincident multiple" systems, with several transiting planets shared between the two stars. Finally, we find 98% confidence evidence that short-period giant planets are two to three times more likely than longer-period planets to be found in wide stellar binaries.

Additional Information

© 2014 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2013 December 17; accepted 2014 June 2; published 2014 July 24. We thank the anonymous referee for careful analysis and useful comments on the manuscript. The Robo-AO system is supported by collaborating partner institutions, the California Institute of Technology and the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, and by the National Science Foundation under grant Nos. AST-0906060 and AST-0960343, by the Mount Cuba Astronomical Foundation, by a gift from Samuel Oschin.We are grateful to the Palomar Observatory staff for their ongoing support of Robo-AO on the 60 inch telescope, particularly S. Kunsman, M. Doyle, J. Henning, R. Walters, G. Van Idsinga, B. Baker, K. Dunscombe and D. Roderick. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Mauna Kea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain. C.B. and J.A.J. acknowledge support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. J.A.J. acknowledges support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Facilities: PO:1.5m (Robo-AO), Keck:II (NIRC2-NGS)

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