Position angles and coplanarity of multiple systems from transit timing

Aims: We compare the apparent difference in timing of transiting planets (or eclipsing binaries) that are observed from widely separated locations (parallactic delay). Methods: A simple geometrical argument allow us to show that the apparent timing difference depends also on the on-sky position angle of the planetary (or secondary) orbit, relative to the ecliptic plane. Results: We calculate that on-sky position angle would be readily observable using the future PLATO and CHEOPS missions data, and possibility observable already in many known radial-velocity systems (if they exhibit transits). We also find that on-sky coplanarity of multiple objects in the same system can be probed more easily than the on-sky position angle of each of the objects separately. We calculate the magnitude of the effect for all currently known planets (should they exhibit transits), finding that almost 200 of them -- mostly radial-velocity detected planets -- have predicted timing effect larger than 1 second. We also compute the theoretical timing precision for the PLATO mission, that will observe a similar stellar population, and find that a 1 second effect would be frequently readily observable. We also find that on-sky coplanarity of multiple objects in the same system can be probed more easily than the on-sky position angle of each of the objects separately. Conclusions: We show a new observable from transit photometry becomes available when very high precision transit timing is available. We find that there is a good match between projected capabilities of the future space missions PLATO and CHEOPS and the new observable. We give some initial science question that such a new observable may be related to and help addressing.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. A&A accepte

Optimizing the search for transiting planets in long time series

Context: Transit surveys, both ground- and space- based, have already accumulated a large number of light curves that span several years. Aims: The search for transiting planets in these long time series is computationally intensive. We wish to optimize the search for both detection and computational efficiencies. Methods: We assume that the searched systems can be well described by Keplerian orbits. We then propagate the effects of different system parameters to the detection parameters. Results: We show that the frequency information content of the light curve is primarily determined by the duty cycle of the transit signal, and thus the optimal frequency sampling is found to be cubic and not linear. Further optimization is achieved by considering duty-cycle dependent binning of the phased light curve. By using the (standard) BLS one is either rather insensitive to long-period planets, or less sensitive to short-period planets and computationally slower by a significant factor of ~330 (for a 3yr long dataset). We also show how the physical system parameters, such as the host star's size and mass, directly affect transit detection. This understanding can then be used to optimize the search for every star individually. Conclusions: By considering Keplerian dynamics explicitly rather than implicitly one can optimally search the BLS parameter space. The presented Optimal BLS enhances the detectability of both very short and very long period planets while allowing such searches to be done with much reduced resources and time. The Matlab/Octave source code for Optimal BLS is made available.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. A&A accepted. Source code is available at: http://www.astro.physik.uni-goettingen.de/~avivofir

Recent Developments in Empirical IO: Dynamic Demand and Dynamic Games

Empirically studying dynamic competition in oligopoly markets requires dealing with large states spaces and tackling difficult computational problems, while handling heterogeneity and multiple equilibria. In this paper, we discuss some of the ways recent work in Industrial Organization has dealt with these challenges. We illustrate problems and proposed solutions using as examples recent work on dynamic demand for differentiated products and on dynamic games of oligopoly competition. Our discussion of dynamic demand focuses on models for storable and durable goods and surveys how researchers have used the \Industrial Organization; Oligopoly competition; Dynamic demand; Dynamic games; Estimation; Counterfactual experiments; Multiple equilibria; Inclusive values; Unobserved heterogeneity.

Using Weights to Adjust for Sample Selection When Auxiliary Information is Available

In this paper I analyze GMM estimation when the sample is not a random draw from the population of interest. I exploit auxiliary information, in the form of moments from the population of interest, in order to compute weights that are proportional to the inverse probability of selection. The essential idea is to construct weights, for each observation in the primary data, such that the moments of the weighted data are set equal to the additional moments. The estimator is applied to the Dutch Transportation Panel, in which refreshment draws were taken from the population of interest in order to deal with heavy attrition of the original panel. I show how these additional samples can be used to adjust for sample selection.

A Distributed GUI-based Computer Control System for Atomic Physics Experiments

Atomic physics experiments often require a complex sequence of precisely timed computer controlled events. A distributed GUI-based control system designed with such experiments in mind, The Cicero Word Generator, is described. The system makes use of a client-server separation between a user interface for sequence design and a set of output hardware servers. Output hardware servers are designed to use standard National Instruments output cards, but the client-server nature allows this to be extended to other output hardware. Output sequences running on multiple servers and output cards can be synchronized using a shared clock. By using an FPGA-generated variable frequency clock, redundant buffers can be dramatically shortened, and a time resolution of 100ns achieved over effectively arbitrary sequence lengths