Planets in binary systems

Abstract

In close eclipsing binary systems, measurements of the eclipse timing variations (ETV), obtained by means of accurate light curves, may be used to find circumbinary additional objects. The presence of these objects causes the motion of the eclipsing binary with respect to the centre of mass of the entire system and it results in advances or delays in the times of eclipses due to the light time effect. The most important issue of this project is to inspect the potential of detecting low mass substellar companions to close eclipsing binaries through the timing method. For this purpose, we use the public data from Kepler and CoRoT spacecrafts, collecting the light curves for a selected sample and analyzing the observed minus calculated (O-C) times of the eclipses in the search for ETVs and characterizing them. A large amplitude of the O-C ETVs can be explained in some cases by the presence of a third body in the system. © International Astronomical Union 2012.