On Activity and Planets of Low-Mass Stars: Towards the Tenth Anniversary of CARMENES

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• Lev Tal-Or (Ariel)
• Tuesday 20 May 2025, 13:00-14:00
• Ryle seminar room + ONLINE - Details to be sent by email.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Dr Dolev Bashi.

It has been almost ten years since CARMENES opened its two spectroscopic eyes at the Calar-Alto observatory. Here’s an up-to-date account of the findings: more than 40 new planets in a sample of 354 M dwarfs; mass estimates of 32 transiting planets; and more than 120 papers, also covering topics such as stellar magnetic activity, binaries, and atmospheric characterization of exoplanets. So, what’s next? Stellar activity is still the main factor limiting the detection of many more planets or estimating the mass of transiting planets around low-mass stars. But for CARMENES , stellar activity is a signal, not just correlated noise. In its spectroscopic time series, it is manifested as a quasiperiodic wavelength-dependent variability, which induces activity-related radial velocity (ARV) variations of at least 2 m/s. For many stars, ARV variability is >10 m/s. Fortunately, ARV variability differs from Doppler shifts: it is usually incoherent, wavelength-dependent, and accompanied by spectral shape variations. These differences can help us distinguish between activity-related and planetary signals and model both phenomena simultaneously.

This talk is part of the Exoplanet Seminars series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Cambridge Astronomy Talks
• Combined External Astrophysics Talks DAMTP
• Cosmology, Astrophysics and General Relativity
• Exoplanet Seminars
• Institute of Astronomy Talk Lists
• LCLU Departmental Talks
• Ryle seminar room + ONLINE - Details to be sent by email

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