Bayesian Hierarchical Modeling for Characterizing the Population of Exoplanets Using Kepler Data

• Activity Number: 539
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 6, 2014 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Physical and Engineering Sciences
• Author(s): Eric B. Ford*+ and Megan Shabram and Jessi Cisewski and Darin Ragozzine and Leslie A. Rogers
• Companies: Penn State and Penn State and Carnegie Mellon and Florida Institute of Technology and Caltech
• Keywords: Astrostatistics ; Bayesian hierarchical models ; Kepler ; Exoplanets

Abstract

What is the frequency of Earth-size planets around Sun-like stars? How do the orbital properties of exoplanets varying with planet size? We present recent progress in applying BHMs to data from NASA's Kepler mission. In particular, we characterize the eccentricity distribution of various subsets of Kepler's planet candidates. We also present early results of BHMs applied to characterizing the planet mass-radius relationship of super-Earth and sub-Neptune-size planets. Finally, we summarize remaining statistical and computational challenges, particularly in regards to characterizing the fraction of nearby stars with Earth-like planets near the habitable zone.