Exoplanetary System Architectures

Of the thousands of known exoplanets, nearly half are found in systems with multiple planets. The arrangement of masses, radii, periods, and inclinations within each of these systems is markedly nonrandom, but describing such patterns is a complex task. I'm leveraging ideas from information theory in order to capture the global architecture of each system, with an eye towards (1) classifying subpopulations of systems, (2) identifying which systems are most likely to host additional undetected planets, and (3) providing better empirical targets for formation models.

Orbital Dynamics

When multiple planets orbit the same star, their mutual gravitational interactions perturb their orbits away from simple Keplerian motion. If at least planet transits its host star, these dynamical perturbations can be observed as transit timing variations (TTVs), or deviations from strictly periodic motion. TTVs are used to constrain the masses and eccentricities of planets, as well as to detect new planets or, conversely, to rule out the presence of unseen planets. I model TTVs from start to finish, first fitting transit lightcurves in order to measure individual transit times and then running N-body integrations in order to simulate the short-term dynamical behavior and long-term dynamical stability of each system.