CaltechAUTHORS
Published October 2020 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

Measuring Transit Signal Recovery in the Kepler Pipeline. IV. Completeness of the DR25 Planet Candidate Catalog

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Infrared Processing and Analysis Center
  • 2. ROR icon Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
  • 3. ROR icon Ames Research Center
  • 4. ROR icon Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • 5. ROR icon Space Telescope Science Institute
  • 6. ROR icon University of California, Santa Cruz

Abstract

In this work we empirically measure the detection efficiency of the Kepler pipeline used to create the final Kepler threshold crossing event and planet candidate catalogs, a necessary ingredient for occurrence-rate calculations using these lists. By injecting simulated signals into the calibrated pixel data and processing those pixels through the pipeline as normal, we quantify the detection probability of signals as a function of their signal strength and orbital period. In addition, we investigate the dependence of the detection efficiency on parameters of the target stars and their location in the Kepler field of view. We find that the end-of-mission version of the Kepler pipeline returns to a high overall detection efficiency, averaging a 90%–95% rate of detection for strong signals across a wide swathe variety of parameter space. We find a weak dependence of the detection efficiency on the number of transits contributing to the signal and the orbital period of the signal, and a stronger dependence on the stellar effective temperature and correlated noise properties. We also find a weak dependence of the detection efficiency on the position within the field of view. By restricting the Kepler stellar sample to stars with well-behaved correlated noise properties, we can define a set of stars with high detection efficiency for future occurrence-rate calculations.

Additional Information

© 2020. The American Astronomical Society. Received 2019 December 4; revised 2020 July 26; accepted 2020 July 29; published 2020 September 10. We thank the anonymous referee for thoughtful comments and questions that improved the manuscript. Funding for the Kepler Discovery Mission is provided by NASA's Science Mission Directorate. These data products were generated by the Kepler Mission science pipeline through the efforts of the Kepler Science Operations Center and Science Office. This research has made use of the NASA Exoplanet Archive, which is operated by the California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under the Exoplanet Exploration Program. Facility: Kepler. -

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
105350
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20200911-133137674

Funding

NASA/JPL/Caltech

Dates

Created
2020-09-15
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-16
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

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Caltech groups
Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC)