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# Detection of Intermediate-Period Transiting Planets with a Network of Small Telescopes: transitsearch.org

## 1 Introduction

Over the past seven years, Doppler radial velocity (RV) measurements have led to the discovery of over one hundred planets within a sample of several thousand bright, nearby Sun-like stars. As the catalog of worlds continues to grow, our view of extrasolar planets is shifting from an anecdotal collection of individual systems, e.g. 51 Pegasi, $`\upsilon `$ Andromedae, or 47 Ursae Majoris, to a more complete statistical census, in which categories and populations of planets can be clearly delineated (Marcy, Cochran, & Mayor, 2000).111An up-to-date version of the planetary census can be found at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/planets/ Yet the planetary systems from which we can learn the most — those that transit — remain anecdotal at best.

For each system, there is a chance that the planet will periodically transit the surface of the star as seen from Earth. An eclipsing Jupiter-mass planet on a 3-day orbit produces a periodic $``$1.5% dimming of the parent star that lasts for about 3 hours. At present (August 2003) only a single transiting planet — HD 209458b, $`P=3.525\mathrm{d}`$ — has been studied in detail (Charbonneau et al., 2000; Henry et al., 2000), while a second object (OGLE TM-56-b, Konacki et al. (2003)) has been recently announced, but not studied as extensively. HD 209458b has provided a scientific bonanza, including direct and accurate measurements of the planet’s radius ($`1.35\pm 0.06R_{\mathrm{Jup}}`$; Brown et al. (2001)), mass ($`0.69\pm 0.05M_{\mathrm{Jup}}`$; Mazeh et al. (2000)), density, and even sodium in its atmosphere and hydrogen in its exosphere (Charbonneau et al., 2002; Vidal-Madjar et al., 2003).

The excitement generated by HD 209458b has led to a major push by the community to find additional transiting planets. A website maintained by Keith Horne222http://star-www.st-and.ac.uk/{̃}kdh1/transits/table.html lists, along with the project described in this paper, an additional twenty-four ground-based collaborations that are engaged in various efforts to discover planetary transits. In total, these surveys yield a reported capacity for discovering 148 planets per month. Despite this activity, however, an important corner of parameter space receives extremely little coverage; there is currently no other organized effort to detect intermediate-period planets which transit bright ($`V<11`$ parent stars). We describe a strategy for detecting such transits, which we have adopted for the transitsearch.org collaboration, and we show Monte Carlo simulations that demonstrate the project’s feasibility.

Our basic approach is to harness a network of small independent telescopes to obtain multiple differential-photometric time-series of known planet-bearing stars during the well-defined time windows in which transits are predicted to occur. If several independent observers simultaneously measure a characteristic diminution or brightening at the predicted times of ingress or egress, then there is strong evidence that the star is exhibiting a transit, and follow-up confirmation can then be obtained at the time of the next predicted transit. The observational campaign is coordinated through a website: www.transitsearch.org.

## 2 Scientific Motivation

Any transits which our network uncovers will occur for planets which occult bright ($`V<11`$) stars. This is an advantage. Such stars are precisely those for which the RV method can provide accurate orbital parameters and accurate values for $`M\mathrm{sin}(i)`$, both of which are required to usefully characterize the planetary properties. Furthermore, a bright parent star facilitates accurate photometry. The exquisite precision ($`1.1\times 10^4`$) HST light curves which have been produced for HD 209458b (Brown et al., 2001) depend on the $`V=7.64`$ magnitude of the parent star. Brown et al. (2001) report that in order to obtain optimal photon noise-limited precision with HST for HD 209458b, photometric measurements of 80s duration (60s integration plus 20s CCD readout) were required. The critical ingress and egress periods were thus time-resolved into approximately 20 samples each. A $`V9`$ star, which produces $``$6 times fewer photons, would require 6-minute cadencing to obtain the same photometric precision, and the periods of ingress and egress would be resolved into only a few time intervals. For considerably dimmer stars ($`V14`$, say) photometric precision will necessarily be compromised.

The transitsearch.org collaboration is geared to survey planets with $`10\mathrm{d}<P<200\mathrm{d}`$. This sensitivity to longer-period transits occurs because we can narrow our observations to specific predicted time windows. The detection strategy thus involves no data folding, and does not demand stable photometry over multiple nights or seasons.

Why would an intermediate-period transiting planet be of interest? Although the measured ($`1.35R_{\mathrm{Jup}}`$) radius of HD 209458b is broadly consistent with its being a gas-giant composed primarily of hydrogen (Guillot et al., 1996; Burrows et al., 2000), recent work by Guillot & Showman (2002); Bodenheimer, Laughlin, & Lin (2003); Baraffe et al. (2003) all suggest that our understanding of irradiated giant planets is incomplete. These three studies agree that standard evolutionary models can recover the observed radius of HD 209458b only if the deep atmosphere is unrealistically hot. The recent studies incorporate realistic atmospheric temperature profiles; the no-core models of HD 209458b have a radius of $``$$`1.1R_{\mathrm{Jup}}`$, which is much too small.

Three resolutions to this problem have been suggested. Bodenheimer, Laughlin, & Lin (2003) show that HD 209458b might be receiving interior tidal heating through ongoing orbital circularization resulting from perturbations due to a second planetary companion, whereas Guillot & Showman (2002) propose that strong insolation-driven weather patterns on the planet are leading to conversion of kinetic wind energy into thermal energy at pressures of tens of bars. Burrows, Sudarsky & Hubbard (2003) argue that the size discrepancy stems largely from improper interpretation of the transit radius, and that the measured radius of HD 209458b in fact lies much higher up in the planetary atmosphere than is generally assumed.

In any event, an accurate size and mass determination for an intermediate-period planet will be of great help in resolving the observed size discrepancy for HD 209458b. A planet with intermediate period cannot not have significant internal tidal dissipation, but would still be receiving a modest amount of kinetic heating from the mechanism suggested by Guillot & Showman (2002). Furthermore, the Burrows, Sudarsky & Hubbard (2003) theory for HD 209458b is readily extended to predict effective transit radii at different planetary masses and temperatures; the discovery of an intermediate period transiting planet would provide a useful test of such predictions.

Intermediate-period planets are also interesting because they can harbor dynamically stable large satellites. Tidal interactions likely removed any satellites larger than $`R=70\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}`$ orbiting HD 209458b. Mars-mass moons, however, can last for 5 Gyr in the Hill Sphere of a $`1M_{\mathrm{Jup}}`$ planet orbiting a $`1M_{\mathrm{}}`$ star in a 27 day (0.18 au) orbit, whereas in a 54 day (0.28 au) orbit, Earth-mass moons are dynamically stable (Barnes & O’Brien, 2002). Brown et al. (2001) report that with HST, detections of satellites as small as $`1R_{}`$ are feasible. Therefore, an intermediate-period planet found by our survey could be followed up to search for large moons, and, additionally, planetary rings. Prior to space-based missions such as KEPLER (Borucki et al., 2003), the detection of a large moon orbiting an intermediate-period transiting planet is the best prospect for finding a habitable world.

## 3 How Many Planets Transit Bright Stars?

Regardless of scientific benefit, our survey can be successful only if there are additional transiting planets to be found orbiting bright stars, and only if the telescope network is sensitive and responsive enough to definitively confirm or rule out the occurrence of transits for individual stars.

The a priori probability that a planet transits its parent star as seen from the line of sight to Earth is given by

$$𝒫_{\mathrm{transit}}=0.0045\frac{1\text{au}}{a}\frac{R_{}R_\mathrm{p}}{R_{\mathrm{}}}\frac{1+e\mathrm{cos}(\pi /2\varpi )}{1e^2},$$
(1)
where $`a`$ is the semi-major axis of the orbit, $`R_{}`$ is the radius of the star, $`R_\mathrm{p}`$ is the radius of the planet, $`e`$ is the orbital eccentricity, and $`\varpi `$ is the argument of periastron referenced to the plane of the sky. Using the parameters of the current radial velocity planet catalog333see, e.g., http://www.transitsearch.org/stardatabase/index.htm, we find that among the 17 Doppler wobble planets with periods $`P<10\mathrm{d}`$, there are $`n=1.75`$ expected transits, and indeed, within this group, a transiting case (HD 209458b) is known. Sixteen of the planets with $`P<10\mathrm{d}`$ have reported non-detections (although in some cases unpublished and unverified). These non-detections include HD 68988b, HD 168743b, and HD 217107b, which can be ruled out on the basis of observations made with the transitsearch.org network. Only one $`P<10\mathrm{d}`$ planet, HD 162020b ($`P=8.428\mathrm{d}`$), has, to our knowledge, not yet been checked for transits.

Among the aggregate of 27 planets having periods in the range $`10\mathrm{d}<P<200\mathrm{d}`$, the expected number of transiting planets is $`n=0.72`$. Almost none of the parent stars in this group, however, have yet been monitored for transits, due to low individual transit probabilities and increasingly uncertain transit ephemerides. The main sequence stars harboring intermediate-period planets therefore represent the primary targets for our network. We also note that among the 67 known planets with $`P>200\mathrm{d}`$, one expects $`n0.6`$ additional transiting cases. However, as the planetary period becomes longer, follow-up becomes increasingly difficult due to uncertainties in the transit times and long intervals between occultations.

The transit probability for any given planet is not a strictly declining function of semi-major axis. For example, the highest a priori transit probability for any known planet belongs not to one of the short-period hot Jupiters (which tend to average $`𝒫_{\mathrm{transit}}12\%`$), but rather to the $`P=550\mathrm{d}`$ planet orbiting $`\iota `$ Draconis. In this system, a large planetary semi-major axis (1.34 au) is more than offset by the $`12.8R_{\mathrm{}}`$ stellar radius (Allende Prieto & Lambert, 1999), and favorable orbital geometry ($`e`$=0.7, $`\varpi =94\mathrm{°}`$; Frink et al. (2002)) which lead to $`𝒫_{\mathrm{transit}}=15.4\%`$, with the next predicted transit occuring on April 4, 2004. An extreme case such as this leads to a transit depth which is hard to detect from the ground (and impossible for our network) but there are other intermediate-period planets which have surprisingly high transit probabilities (e.g. HD 38529b: $`P=14.5\mathrm{d}`$, $`𝒫_{\mathrm{transit}}=13.7\%`$, or HD 74156b: $`P=51.6\mathrm{d}`$, $`𝒫_{\mathrm{transit}}=4.3\%`$).

In addition to the current census, more planets with periods suitable for transitsearch.org will emerge if RV surveys expand their samples. Currently, within the $`10\mathrm{d}<P<200\mathrm{d}`$ range, there are five known planets orbiting stars with $`V<6`$, seven orbiting stars with $`6<V<7`$, six orbiting stars with $`7<V<8`$, and two planets each in the $`8<V<9`$, and $`9<V<10`$ ranges. If we assume that every available chromospherically quiet main sequence dwarf with $`V<6`$ has been adequately surveyed for $`P<200\mathrm{d}`$ planets, and that each magnitude bin of unit width contains 1.8$`\times `$ as many stars as available for bin $`(V1)`$ (Cox, 2000), then we expect that roughly $`9+16+29+52+94=200`$ detectable planets with $`P<200\mathrm{d}`$ exist in orbit around stars with $`V<11`$, indicating that close to 180 additional planets in this category can be detected using current RV techniques for bright stars. Statistically, this implies that 6 intermediate-period transiting planets orbit bright nearby stars.444 A similar calculation shows that 6 additional short-period $`(P<10\mathrm{d})`$ transiting planets are likely to be orbiting bright stars. The goal of the transitsearch.org network is to find one of these transits.

## 4 Transit Detection With Small Telescopes

In the past several years, a number of amateur astronomers have detected the HD 209458b transits and have shown that the $`1\%`$ diminution produced by a transiting Jovian planet is readily observable via differential photometry obtained with small (8-10 inch aperture) telescopes fitted with commercial-grade CCD detectors. A report of one of these observations (Arto Oksanen, Sky & Telescope, January 2001) raised a provocative question: Is it a realistic possibility for a network of small-college observatories and highly experienced amateurs to discover a new transiting system? If so, many small telescopes can be organized to maintain a time-intensive volunteer-based transit survey of known planet-bearing stars during predicted transit epochs.

In order to investigate the viability of detecting transits using low-cost equipment and software, we designed and documented an end-to-end procedure which allowed us to observe an HD 209458b transit. Our demonstration observatory consists of a Meade LX-200 8-inch f/10 telescope fitted with a Santa Barbara Instruments Group ST7E 765x510 pixel CCD. Pointing/imaging/guiding, standard image reductions, and aperture photometry are accomplished with a laptop computer running The Sky, CCDSoft, and MIRA AP 6.0 software, respectively. These tools are all well-documented, reliable, relatively inexpensive, and familiar to amateur astronomers.

With a focal reducer, the CCD image of a target region covers $`36\mathrm{}\times 24\mathrm{}`$, which is generally large enough to admit several $`V=911`$ comparison stars for differential photometry. In the case of HD 209458, a field star HIP 108793 ($`V=8.33`$) is situated $`12\mathrm{}`$ away. We acquire the target field prior to the predicted start of ingress, and obtain successive 2s CCD exposures at a cadence of 35s per frame. The short 2s exposures are used to avoid pixel saturation by HD 209458. The small overall duty cycle is caused by the need to acquire auto-guiding images and to read out the CCD. Sequences of 20 exposures are averaged together to produce composite measurements of the brightness of the stars in the field within 12 minute intervals. Using standard aperture photometry techniques, photoelectron counts from the target star are compared to counts from the comparison star(s) in the field. A transit manifests itself by the characteristic changes in the brightness of the target star during the predicted times of ingress and/or egress. This phenomenon is shown in Figure 1, for HD 209458b during the transit of 10/19/01. Photometric errors for each 12 minute bin are of order 0.003 magnitudes, and are dominated by atmospheric scintillation. We note that simple improvements, such as the use of a broad band, neutral density, or spot filter (Castellano, 2000) to increase open-shutter time or reduce the difference in brightness between the target and a typical comparison star, could considerably improve precision.

For our purposes here, this observation tells us two things. First, transiting planets are readily detected with standard amateur-oriented equipment. Second, we can assume that many observers worldwide will have similar observational configurations, and will be capable of obtaining differential photometry of comparable precision.

## 5 Monte Carlo Simulation

In order to evaluate the viability of a collaboration-based transit survey of known planet-bearing stars, we have performed a Monte Carlo study which models realistic incarnations of the transitsearch.org network. This simulation is written in IDL555http://www.rsinc.com and makes heavy use of the IDL Astronomy User’s Library666http://idlastro.gsfc.nasa.gov.

The simulation is initialized with the following inputs: a list of observers and a target list of known planet-bearing stars. Each observer has an associated location (latitude and longitude) and weather (average fraction of clear/cloudy nights per year). Each target has an associated position (RA and Dec), period $`P`$, estimated transit probability $`𝒫_{\mathrm{transit}}`$ calculated from equation 1, and a transit ephemeris. The actual ephemeris for any given system can be obtained from fits to existing RV data, but for simplicity in this simulation, transit ephemerides are generated randomly instead. In cases where a single star hosts multiple planets, it is listed in the target list with multiple entries. Once observers and targets have been set up, several record-keeping logs are also initialized.

The first Monte Carlo step is to assign which targets will host real transits in the simulation. The program calculates a true/false condition for each target based on its $`𝒫_{\mathrm{transit}}`$. The simulation then enters its main loop which proceeds through an observing campaign night-by-night; within each night there is nested a loop which proceeds through the observer list one-by-one. That inner loop over observers proceeds as follows.

Before assigning a target to an observer, the simulation first must determine if the weather is favorable for the night. While season-based weather patterns have not been figured into the model, the fraction of clear and cloudy nights at each observing location is known777For locations in the US, such data are available from http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/online/ccd/cldy.html. Using these probabilities, the night’s weather for each location is determined in Monte Carlo fashion. If clear or cloudy, all observers common to the location will be affected identically. If the weather is determined to be partly cloudy, each observer must be dealt with independently, allowing for the possibility that some observers in a given location will be able to observe while others are not.

For each observer, the Julian date (JD) of sunrise and sunset at the observer’s location are calculated for the current date in the campaign. The JD of sunset, the position of each target, and the observer’s location are used to calculate airmasses for each target in the target list. Any targets that pass the airmass cutoff (2.5 in our simulations) at sunset are then checked to ensure they will pass the airmass limit for at least four hours. Thus a night of data will consist of at least four hours of time-series photometry, and we allow it to be as long as nine hours if the target is up (and the Sun is down).

With the narrowed list of targets that are up, the simulation next checks to see if any targets are near transit. We assume that transit ephemerides are accurate to within $``$5% of an orbit. If the observer’s night overlaps at all with this margin of error for a target that is up, then that observer is assigned to that target. The likelihood of two observable stars being at transit in a given night is low, but if such a case does occur, the observer is assigned to the higher transit probability. Although there will be fewer opportunities to observe the longer-period planets, we feel it is justified to concentrate resources on targets where the probability of successfully observing a transit is higher.

Thus, only if an observer has a target near-transit and favorable weather, the simulation generates the night’s photometry via Monte Carlo. Photometry is generated with an arbitrary zeropoint and Gaussian noise. Additionally, for those targets that the simulation has randomly designated “real” transits, a simple linear ingress/egress and transit depth based on HD 209458b are input into the photometry. We scale the ingress/egress times with the period of the planet in order to simulate long-period transits. The transit depth and photometry noise amplitude are always set to match our template data (plotted in Figure 1) from the system described in §4.

An observer’s photometry for a night is very simply analyzed by calculating the Spearman’s rank correlation for the data. Basically, this determines whether a linear trend has been detected between the beginning and end of a night’s data and returns a confidence-level for such a trend (Press et al., 1992). This simple analysis fits the overwhelming majority of cases where portions of ingress or egress have been observed, but will fail in the exceedingly rare case where the transit is perfectly centered in the night’s time window.

The process of the preceding five paragraphs is repeated for each observer in the observer list, and this constitutes one night of the campaign (the inner loop). The simulation then increments its internal “calendar” by one day and proceeds again — this repeats until the campaign ends (the outer loop).

For each target, the simulation keeps track of the number of no-correlations, 2-$`\sigma `$ correlations, and 4-$`\sigma `$ correlations observers have seen. Any 2-$`\sigma `$ correlations are used to give a target a “free pass”, allowing it to stay on the target list until more definite observations can be made. However, since the goal of any campaign is to observe as much of the target list as possible, targets must be eliminated from the list. Thus, a limit is set on the number of times a 4-$`\sigma `$ correlation is shown before a star is dropped. This limit is generally low, for two reasons: in a real run, someone with access to a professional observatory will begin follow-up work, and additionally, in multiple realizations the 4-$`\sigma `$ correlation was associated with false positives in less than 1% of all cases. Similarly, a limit is set on the number of times a target can produce a non-detection (no-correlation) before it is dropped from the list. This limit is generally fairly high, to avoid dropping an actually-transiting target simply because the transit occurred outside an observing window. Both drop limits scale with target planet period, as the 5% accuracy of ephemerides leads to exceedingly long observing windows for targets with periods as short as 100 days, leading necessarily to a higher number of non-detections.

In addition to this scorecard for each target, the simulation also generates many other record-keeping files, such as a log of the weather and observations of each observer for each night, and every photometry file that is generated. Certain variables of interest are also tracked, such as the summed transit expectation value from the remaining target list, updated whenever a target has been successfully eliminated from further observing.

## 6 Results

We have modeled several different configurations of observers, and a number of target lists. Addressed in this paper are five observer scenarios: a lone, dedicated observer at Mt. Hamilton near San Jose, CA; ten observers located at Mt. Hamilton; ten observers distributed across the U.S.; twenty observers split between San Jose and Sydney, Australia; and twenty observers distributed between eight worldwide locations. For comparison, a second run of a single observer has been made, but using a noise amplitude one-fifth that of the other runs, to represent an astronomer with access to a professional observatory. In each case, simulations are run for three target lists drawn from the pool of planet-bearing stars. The selection is based on planetary period, with maximum period cutoffs of 1000 days (essentially the complete listing of extrasolar planets), 365 days, and 100 days. In each case, 7 days is always the minimum period cutoff.

During trial runs, the 4-$`\sigma `$ correlation and no-correlation limits were adjusted to minimize the number of false positives/negatives, while not making runs overly long. The values we used for these were such that there were no false positives among the amateurs, and two for the professional observer, for which the drop limits were lowered to match the reduced noise factor. While several actual transits were missed, these were due to incompleteness at the end of the run, not due to observers incorrectly ruling them out.

For each pair of observer list and target list, the simulation has been run 20 times to provide adequate statistics, and was analyzed to find a number of quantities, most importantly list completeness. Though it is possible to run the code until every target has been adequately observed, this usually leads to prohibitively long runs. Often, the end of a run is dominated by long period planets which provide few opportunities for observing, and depending on observer locations, may not ever be observed. Rather than running to absolute completion, we chose a fixed length for the run. In each case presented here, runs start near the end of summer, 2003, and end in January 2008. This generally means that the observers will not have completed the entire target list, but still provides a good demonstration of the differences between observer configurations.

The final list completeness is tallied in Table 1. Additionally, plots of targets remaining to be classified vs. time are shown in Figure 2, where we have recorded the JD on which targets were dropped and the number of targets remaining afterward. A smoothed average curve is superimposed upon the target vs. time data from all 20 runs. Number of observers increases from left to right, as does the average physical separation between observers. The size of the target list increases downwards. The red curve is the test case for our professional astronomer.

In all cases, the curves show a characteristic delay time, in which observers begin to classify targets, but have not had enough nights to remove targets from consideration. At the $``$2 year mark, targets begin to become saturated, and the list of remaining targets shortens rapidly. Eventually, most targets are removed, and the curve flattens out as only the most difficult targets remain. As one would expect, having more observers increases the number of targets it is possible to cover by the end of the run, and additionally, it is easily seen in the 100 day list and 365 day lists that observers more evenly spread in longitude do a slightly better job completing the target list. Also, note that while a lone amateur observer virtually never amasses enough data to drop a target, even an observer with full access to a professional-grade telescope can do no better than 10 observers clustered around the same location.

The differences are better illustrated when we plot not the number of targets remaining, but the summed transit expectation value remaining on the target list (see Figure 3). It is easier to see the effect of longitudinal spread among observers. The second and fourth columns represent observers concentrated in one and two locations, respectively, and show almost three years before significant target completeness begins to show. By contrast, the third and fifth columns represent observers located over a larger spread in longitude, and they begin to make progress fully a year before their counterparts. Globally, the optimal configuration seems to be a large number of observers with maximal spread in longitude/latitude. From our data, we show that this configuration of observers can cover roughly 40% more of the probability-weighted target list than even the professional observer.

## 7 Conclusion

These Monte Carlo simulations are a feasibility study that demonstrates the efficacy of the transitsearch.org project. They differ from reality in important ways. For instance, in the simulations a simple rank-correlation analysis is applied to individual observers’ data, for efficiency. In reality, multiple observers’ data will overlap, and arbitrarily sophisticated techniques (along with eyeballs) will be brought to bear on anything that appears interesting. A shortcoming of the simulations is that the photometric noise and transit signal are based on the data from our demonstration observatory described in §4. Intermediate-period planets will likely have smaller radii than HD 209458b, and hence the transit signal will not be as deep. However, many transitsearch.org “amateurs” obtain photometry comparable to data from our setup — and the simple improvements mentioned in §4 and Castellano (2000) will increase photometric precision. In addition, the longer timescale of intermediate-period transits will allow for more binning of the photometry, further increasing precision. Lastly, the transit depth is also very sensitive to the stellar radius, which varies significantly in the target list, but has not been considered here. Nevertheless we feel that this feasibility study is at least a reasonable demonstration of our strategy.

These simulations show that while a single observer campaign is capable of discovering transits, this observer will generally leave 30-50% of the sky uncovered. Not only can multiple observers better cover the sky, they can also cover it more quickly. Additionally, the data reveal the importance of having not only multiple observers in multiple locations, but also in ensuring that the observers cover a wide range of longitudes in both hemispheres. Note, for instance, the difference in time to completion between the case where 10 observers are located in both San Jose and Sydney, and the case where 20 observers are scattered across nine worldwide locations. It is apparent that longitudinal coverage is important. One naturally expects that weather will be a key factor in determining time to completion, as it will most dramatically affect the length of a run that is confined to a single location. But the spread in longitude proves equally important, as one might guess from the process of viewing eclipses on Earth. Both timing and location are everything.

Most current work on transits is divided into two categories, our Mount Hamilton case (the single dedicated observer), and studies like OGLE which rely on time sequenced, wide-field snapshots that detect possible transits. However, we have shown that a single observer is at a disadvantage, no matter how powerful the telescope, while wide-field surveys suffer from false positives associated with binary stars, and additionally provide poor targets for follow-up radial velocity work. In the end, even confining a search to the known extrasolar planets produces a long list of potential targets that proves difficult to work through. We have shown that by handing the bulk of observing work to a dedicated team of observers with good longitudinal coverage, we may ensure that when a transit is expected to occur, there is always someone watching, and that this team will prove competitive with any other transit search venture.


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# Evidence for high accretion-rates in Weak-Line T Tauri stars?

## 1 Introduction

T Tauri stars are divided into classical T Tauri stars (CTTs) and weak T Tauri stars (WTTs) largely on the basis of their H$`\alpha `$ emission. The cutoff is usually taken at 10Å, with values above this representing a CTTs (Appenzeller & Mundt, 1989). It has long been argued that the difference between CTTs and WTTs is that the former have discs, and the latter do not. Indeed, there is some support for this paradigm, with H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width correlating with other disc indicators, such as B-V excess, or infrared colour excess (Herbig, 1998; Cabrit et al., 1990). However, many problems exist with such a scheme. The cutoff of 10Å is somewhat arbitrary, and is less sensitive at earlier spectral types (Martín, 1997). Also, recent studies have discovered WTTs which show infared excesses indicative of circumstellar discs (Gregorio-Hetem & Hetem, 2002). Here we present evidence that at least some WTTs not only possess accretion discs, but are accreting from them at a rate which is comparable to the most rapidly accreting CTTs.

An optical spectroscopic and photometric survey of a set of 47 stars associated with Einstein X-ray sources in the $`\rho `$ Ophiuchus cloud (Bouvier & Appenzeller, 1992, hereafter BA92), identified 30 pre-main sequence stars. Four of these stars (ROXs 21, ROXs 47a, ROXs 2 and ROXs 3) were identified as exhibiting “composite” spectra - the spectral type inferred from a blue spectral region near H$`\beta `$ was systematically earlier than that inferred from a red spectral region surrounding the TiO band between 7050 and 7200Å. The spectral types inferred for these stars are listed in Table 1. We note here that the composite spectrum effect was reliably detected in the case of ROXs 21, 47a and 3. The detection of the effect in ROXs 2 was less secure; although the blue spectral type of K3 was reliable, the lower resolution spectrum of this object rendered the red spectral type of M0 uncertain. Our spectrum published here confirms the red spectral type of BA92, and hence we consider this star as a bona-fide composite spectrum object. BA92 also found a discrepancy in red and blue spectral types for ROXs 29, but the difference in spectral type (K4 vs K6) was barely significant, and we do not consider this star a bona-fide composite spectrum object.

BA92 put forward two suggestions for the origin of the composite spectra.

* The systems are close binaries, with components of different temperatures.
* The systems consist of cool stars surrounded by accretion discs. The blue spectral region is dominated by luminosity either from the accretion itself, or from hot spots arising where the accretion stream hits the star.

However, they were unable to determine which, if either, of these explanations was the case. The binary hypothesis was examined by Koresko (1995), who performed speckle interferometry for ROXs 21 (SR 12), ROXs 47a (Do-Ar 51) and ROXs 3. He found that ROXs 21 and ROXs 47a were close binary stars with brightness ratios at 1.65 $`\mu `$m of 0.9 and 0.33 respectively. However, he also found that co-eval binaries could not be responsible for the composite spectra effect. The problem arises as the two components must have comparable luminosities at 5550Å. The cool component must then be larger than the hot component, implying that the hot component is substantially older than the cool component.

Hence, the nature of the objects discovered in BA92 remains a mystery. In order to resolve this mystery, we revisited the objects, more than twenty years later, with medium-resolution spectroscopy in the blue and red regions. The spectra of all four objects show significant changes since the observations of BA92. All objects now show strong H$`\alpha `$ emission and a diminished composite spectrum effect. The presence of such variability strongly argues against a binary origin for the phenomenon. Here we suggest that the composite spectrum phenomenon, and the variability witnessed, is caused by changes in the accretion state of the young stars.

Section 2 describes the observations taken, whilst the results are shown in section 3. In section 4, we outline the scheme we propose to explain these results, and discuss its consequences and in section 5 we summarise our conclusions.

## 2 Observations

On the nights of 2002 Jan 27 and 28 we obtained 5960–7640Å spectra of ROXs 21, ROXs 47a, ROXs 2 and ROXs 3 using the RGO spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) at Siding Spring, Australia. The 1200R grating, blaze-to-camera, in conjunction with the MITTL chip gave a resolution of 1.5Å. The exposure time was 120 secs for each object. The spectra were extracted using the optimal extraction algorithms in figaro (Cohen, 1988). Observations of the A-type star SAO184424 were used to correct the spectra for telluric features. Regular observations of arc and flatfield frames were used to calibrate the data.

In addition, on the nights of 2002 August 30 and 2002 September 1, we obtained 3770–4890Å spectra of a sample of 23 of the 30 pre-main sequence objects oberved by BA92 using the 2dF spectrograph on the AAT (Lewis et al., 2002). Included in the sample were the four composite spectra objects. Each spectrum consists of 5$`\times `$300 sec exposures. The data were taken in service mode by E. Corbett. The 1200B grating was used, giving a resolution of 2.2Å. Arc and flatfield frames were obtained after each target exposure, along with offset sky frames (which may be used to calibrate fibre throughput). The data were reduced using the 2dfdr data reduction package, with default settings (Lewis et al., 2002).

## 3 Results

Figure 1 shows the 3770–4890Å spectra of ROXs 21, ROXs 47a, ROXs 2 and ROXs 3. Shown for comparison in Figure 2 are the original data from BA92. The variability is striking. First, whilst the later spectra of all four objects are characterised by emission lines of the Balmer series and CaII, the original data show no Balmer emission, and strong, broad CaII absorption. Only one object (ROXs 21) shows any sign of CaII or Balmer emission in the ealier data. In all cases, the increase in emission line strength is significant and striking, even when our data are degraded to the resolution and signal to noise of the BA92 spectra. Second, and most intriguing, the prominent G-band seen in the original data at around 4300Å is much weaker in the current data. The G-band is visible in dwarfs from mid-F to late-K type, and peaks in strength around G5V.

With the weakening of the G-band, it is clear that the spectral type inferred from the blue spectral region is later in our data than in the data of BA92. In fact, BA92, used the continuum shape and G-band strength to infer spectral types of K2V–K4V for these objects. Comparison of our spectra and the K7/M0V spectrum in Figure 2 shows that the spectral type inferred from the blue spectral region is now closer to late-K or early M. The implications of this are discussed in section 4.

The red spectral region has also seen significant changes since the original data were taken. BA92 classified all four objects as weak T-Tauri stars on the basis of their H$`\alpha `$ emission. Figure 3 shows our recent AAT spectra. A glance at this figure shows that the H$`\alpha `$ emission properties of the objects has changed markedly: the red spectra of all four objects are now dominated by strong H$`\alpha `$ emission. Table 1 shows the changes in H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width between the two observations. In all cases the equivalent width of H$`\alpha `$ emission has dramatically increased. The change is large enough such that all four objects would now be classified as classical T Tauri stars, on the basis of their H$`\alpha `$ emission. The H$`\alpha `$ emission is also very broad. White & Basri (2003) show that the H$`\alpha `$ line widths at 10% of peak intensity are often a better indicator of ongoing accretion than H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width. They suggest that stars with 10% widths of $`>270`$km s-1 are accreting, regardless of spectral type. All four objects show 10% widths significantly in excess of this value (see Table 1).

Despite the change in H$`\alpha `$ emission properties, the spectral type inferred from the red spectral region remains unchanged with respect to that found by BA92. This removes any uncertainty that the objects we observed are the same objects observed by BA92. We now discuss the implications of these results.

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 The nature of composite spectra

Any theory which seeks to explain the composite spectra observed in these stars must explain these key facts.

* A composite spectrum always shows a hot spectral type in the blue, and a cooler spectral type in the red.
* The phenomenon is transitory, and decays on a timescales of less than or of the order 20 years.
* Coupled with the disappearance of the composite spectrum, is the emergence of an emission line spectrum from CaII and the Balmer lines in the blue region, and a dramatic rise in the equivalent width of H$`\alpha `$ emission in the red region.

Considering these facts, we can reject binarity as a cause for composite spectra; it is unlikely that the spectral type of a star can change by several subclasses in $`\stackrel{<}{}`$20 years. A second possibility is that the composite spectra are caused by cool starspots on the surface of a hot young star. This, too, seems unlikely. On a spot-covered star, the overall light is normally dominated by the hot, bright, spot-free photosphere. BA92 calculated that to produce the composite spectrum effect observed required 93% spot coverage. Given that the spectrum in the blue region has also now cooled, starspots would now have to cover the entire star to explain the observed changes.

The most promising scheme is that the composite spectra are caused by accretion. In this scheme the source for the hot, blue component is the accretion luminosity itself. Unlike the veiling luminosity typically seen in CTTs, which is featureless and fills in stellar absorption lines, we are suggesting that the accretion luminosity, arising from optically thick accretion columns or in hot spots on the stellar surface, itself exhibits hot spectral features, like the G-band at 4300Å. The stellar spectrum is then completely hidden by this accretion luminosity. An optically thick accretion flow would explain the absence of strong H$`\alpha `$ emission in this phase. An attractive property of the accretion model is that the observed spectral changes are easily understood as a fall in the accretion rate. First we consider the blue spectral region. As the accretion rate drops, the accretion flow becomes optically thin, and the luminosity of the flow reduces drastically. The hot spectral features will naturally disappear at this point. The drop in accretion luminosity explains the change to a red continuum, and emergence of an emission line spectrum as the veiling caused by the luminosity disappears. In the red spectral region, the observed changes are simpler, because this region is relatively unaffected by the accretion emission. In this case, the main observed change is a rise in the strength of H$`\alpha `$ emission as the accretion columns become optically thin.

This behaviour is not without precedent. Dwarf novae are binary stars consisting of a low-mass red star transferring mass, via an accretion disc to a white dwarf companion. They exhibit frequent outbursts, which are linked to an instability in the accretion disc which causes sudden increases in accretion rate. These objects are characterised in their quiescent state by a strong emission line spectrum. During outburst, however, high accretion rates mean the disc atmosphere becomes optically thick, and an absorption line spectrum, arising from the disc photosphere, is observed (e. g. Mansperger & Kaitchuck, 1990). The similarities between this behaviour and the behaviour seen in the BA92 objects are striking.

The most obvious implication of this explanation is that here are four stars which may exhibit high accretion rates in the WTT phase. If the blue luminosity in the BA92 objects is dominated by accretion power, we can calculate the required accretion rates from the observed B and V magnitudes, after correction for reddening. We assume the accretion emission is a black body, with its temperature of 5200K taken to correspond to the blue spectral type observed by BA92. To reproduce the composite spectrum effect we scale the luminosity of the accretion source until it contributes roughly twice the stellar luminosity in the V-band. We use the photometry and reddening of BA92, although we note that the BA92 derived the reddening from the V-R colours of the objects. Since the intrinsic V-R would have been affected by accretion luminosity these reddening values are likely to be underestimated, implying that the accretion rates derived here are a lower limit. In order to match the observed B and V magnitudes implies the accretion source has a luminosity of 0.1 L. We assume a stellar mass of 0.5 M and an inner accretion disc radius of 5 R, which corresponds to 3 stellar radii at an age of 1 Myr (D’Antona & Mazzitelli, 1997). With these values a luminosity of 0.1 L imply accretion rates of at least 10-7Myr-1, higher than the average value of 10-8Myr-1 found for CTTs (Hartmann, 1998). Although our value of 10-7Myr-1 is only a rough estimate, it is certainly true that the composite spectrum objects were accreting at a rate comparable to that seen in CTTs. This would be a startling reversal of the paradigm in which strong H$`\alpha `$ emission is taken as evidence of strong accretion onto the young star, and weak H$`\alpha `$ emission denotes a non-accreting source.

### 4.2 Near-infrared excesses

It is pertinent to consider if there is other evidence for the existence of accretion discs in these stars. Circumstellar discs can produce strong infrared emission significantly in excess of the stellar luminosity. Such excess infrared emission is easily detected in a near-infrared colour-colour diagram (see Haisch et al., 2001, for example). We collated JHK photometry for the composite spectrum stars from a number of sources (Bouvier & Appenzeller, 1992; Walter et al., 1994; Rydgren et al., 1976; Cutri et al., 2003; Jensen & Mathieu, 1997). The data were transformed to the UKIRT photometric system using the transformations in Carpenter (2001) and an average of each magnitude was taken. None of the four stars showed any evidence for a near infrared excess when placed on a JHK colour-colour diagram. L band photometry was also available for ROXs 47a and 21. JHKL colour-colour diagrams are a much more sensitive disc indicator than JHK diagrams, often revealing evidence for circumstellar discs in objects showing no JHK excess (see Haisch et al., 2001, for example). In this case, ROXs 47a showed a K-L excess of a few tenths of a magnitude, whilst ROXs 21 showed no K-L excess. The K-L excess in ROXs 47a may, however, be due to a low-mass companion (Simon et al., 1987). Furthermore, we caution about over-interpretation of these data; T Tauri stars are intrinsically variable in the near infrared, with variability up to 1 magnitude not uncommon (Eiroa et al., 2002). As the photometry obtained above was not obtained simultaneously it seems plausible that variability could mask any near infrared excess present.

Although there is a strong correlation between near-infared excess and other disc indicators, the absence of a near infrared excess does not necessarily imply the absence of an accretion disc. For example, Rebull et al. (2002) found several stars with very strong H$`\alpha `$ emission, presumably arising in accretion columns, which exhibited no near infrared excesses. This presumably means it is possible to maintain significant accretion rates onto a young star through a disc which is optically thin in its inner parts.

### 4.3 Time-dependant behaviour of the composite spectrum state.

To better understand the physics of what might cause changes in accretion rate it is pertinent to consider the time-dependance of these changes. For example, how long does the high accretion state last? Is the transition between high and low states short?

The BA92 sample consists of 30 X-ray selected pre-main sequence stars which also exceed a given optical flux limit. In their sample, 4 out of 30 objects show a composite spectrum effect. Naively, this suggests that $``$10% of T Tauri stars are in such a state (but see below). Twenty years later, our 2dF spectroscopy shows that all four objects are now in a low accretion rate state - this argues that the high state is likely to last less than 20 years, with long-duration high states of 50 years or more being very unlikely. Furthermore, in the study of BA92, the composite spectrum effect was either absent or showed similar amounts of spectral type mismatch in all objects. In other words, no objects were observed in a transition between high and low states. This then implies that the transition time between the two states is short - statistical arguments suggest the transition time is unlikely to be longer than 0.5 years.

The timescale of 0.5 years is interesting because it suggests a physical mechanism for the change in accretion state. In dwarf novae, the cause of the accretion rate variations is a thermal-viscous instability (see Lasota (2001) for a review). A similar thermal-viscous instability is believed to cause the FU Orionis phenomena in young stars. In dwarf novae, the accretion rate changes on the thermal timescale for the disc. The thermal timescale for the inner region of T Tauri discs is roughly half a year (at a radius of 0.1 AU). This suggests a thermal-viscous instability in the inner disc may be responsible for the change in accretion rates between the two states.

Interestingly, none of the nineteen other objects we observed from the BA92 sample underwent a change from a low to a high state - the spectral type inferred from our 2dF spectra agreed with the classification of BA92, with the exception of the four composite spectrum objects111ROXs 4 did show a discrepancy with the BA92 spectral type of K4 being incompatible with our classification as early-M, however close inspection of the spectrum published in BA92 leads us to conclude that this star was mis-classified by the authors.. In other words, the sample of BA92 contained four high state objects and no low state objects. Although we have observed four high-low transitions, no low-high transitions have occurred within the BA92 sample. This suggests that the sample of BA92 was strongly biassed towards objects which were in a high state at the time of their observations, and that in fact the fraction of objects in a high state at any given time may be much lower than 10%. Only simultaneous blue/red spectroscopy of an unbiassed sample of pre-main sequence stars can resolve this question.

### 4.4 H$`\alpha `$ variability in T Tauri stars

We note here that this is not the first evidence for large changes in H$`\alpha `$ emission strength in T Tauri stars. For example, Joergens et al. (2001) noted that the equivalent width of H$`\alpha `$ emission in the T Tauri star RX J1608.6-3922 varied from 7–14Å. Herbig (1998) noted that several of the young stars in the cluster IC 348 showed variable H$`\alpha `$ emission, with some objects changing from 2Å to $`>10`$Å in equivalent width. In $`\lambda `$-Ori, the survey of Duerr et al. (1982) catalogued 82 stars with H$`\alpha `$ emission, which they categorised as “strong”, “medium” and “weak”. The region was revisited by Dolan & Mathieu (2001), who found that the H$`\alpha `$ equivalent widths of the “strong” sample included lines as weak as 6Å, a fact they attribute to variability. Then there is the remarkable case of KH 15D - a weak T Tauri star which shows eclipses thought to be caused by inner disc material. During these eclipses the H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width rises from around 2Å to nearly 30–50Å (Hamilton et al., 2002).

Since none of these studies have incorporated spectroscopy in the blue spectral region, it is not possible to say if these changes in H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width are accompanied by the changes we show here. It is clear, however, that there are many examples in the literature where objects have changed their nature from classic to weak T Tauri stars and vice-versa.

### 4.5 The link between H$`\alpha `$ and discs in T Tauri stars

It seems certain that strong (EW $`>10`$ Å) H$`\alpha `$ emission is indicative of the presence of active accretion and hence, an accretion disc. Chromospheric emission from H$`\alpha `$ rarely rises above 10Å (Martín, 1997), so an additional source of H$`\alpha `$ emission must be found. Furthermore, in stars with H$`\alpha `$ emission of EW $`>10`$Å, the strength of H$`\alpha `$ emission is proportional to the B-V excess (e.g. Herbig, 1998). T Tauri stars with strong H$`\alpha `$ also show the infrared excesses thought to arise from the inner accretion disc (Cabrit et al., 1990).

However, it seems that the conclusion that WTTs lack discs is not correct. In fact, it seems certain that at least some WTTs do possess discs. For example, in the case of KH 15D, which is a WTTs, it is material in a circumstellar disc that is believed to be responsible for eclipses in this system (Herbst et al., 2002). Bary et al. (2002) detect molecular hydrogen, believed to originate in an accretion disc, again around a WTTs. Also, the variability of H$`\alpha `$ emission on timescales as short as twenty years argues against its usefuleness as a disc indicator (it is unlikely that the discs themselves could be coming and going on these timescales). Furthermore, in a sample of 27 WTTs, Gregorio-Hetem & Hetem (2002) find that 60% of the objects show infrared excesses which indicate a circumstellar disc.

In at least some of these cases it is tempting to explain the failure of the accepted paradigm by stating that WTTs may or may not have discs, but that these discs are currently not accreting onto the central star. If our interpretation of the composite spectrum phenomenon is correct, however, we are forced to accept that not only are some WTTs accreting, but they are accreting at rates higher than, or comparable to most CTTs.

The presence of active accretion discs amongst the WTTs population is an important result. It suggests that there is no fundamental difference between CTTs and some WTTs, other than the current accretion rate. This might explain, amongst other things, why an evolutionary link between CTTs and WTTs has been difficult to establish. Furthermore, if the time-averaged accretion rate in T Tauri stars is higher than previously suspected, this might explain age spreads seen in some star forming regions. An accretion rate of 10-7Myr-1, as seen in the BA92 objects is high enough to upset the thermal balance of a T Tauri star, moving it back towards the birthline in a HR diagram (Tout et al., 1999).

## 5 Conclusions

We have obtained new spectra of the objects found to exhibit composite spectra by Bouvier & Appenzeller (1992). The composite spectrum effect has diminished in the intervening years; the blue spectral type now agrees more closely with that inferred from the red spectral region. In addition, a series of emission lines has appeared, and the equivalent width of H$`\alpha `$ emission has risen drastically. These spectral changes can be understood if the composite spectrum effect is a result of the blue spectrum being dominated by hot, optically thick emission from the accretion flow. The luminosity in the blue then implies accretion rates of 10-7Myr-1. An important result of this explanation is that the paradigm relating H$`\alpha `$ emission to accretion discs is incomplete; at least some WTTs both posess accretion discs, and are accreting from them at a high rate.

## Acknowledgements

SPL is supported by PPARC. The Anglo-Australian Telescope is operated at Siding Spring by the AAO. We thank Elizabeth Corbett for carrying out the 2dF observations. The authors acknowledge the data analysis facilities at Exeter provided by the Starlink Project which is run by CCLRC on behalf of PPARC.