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Philip W. Lucas

Bio: Philip W. Lucas is an academic researcher from University of Hertfordshire. The author has contributed to research in topics: Brown dwarf & Vista Variables in the Via Lactea. The author has an hindex of 64, co-authored 193 publications receiving 21611 citations. Previous affiliations of Philip W. Lucas include University of Oxford & University of Cambridge.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The final version published in MNRAS August 2007 included significant revisions including significant revisions to the original version April 2006.
Abstract: Final published version including significant revisions. Twenty four pages, fourteen figures. Original version April 2006; final version published in MNRAS August 2007

2,562 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Natalie M. Batalha1, Natalie M. Batalha2, Jason F. Rowe1, Stephen T. Bryson1, Thomas Barclay1, Christopher J. Burke1, Douglas A. Caldwell1, Jessie L. Christiansen1, Fergal Mullally1, Susan E. Thompson1, Timothy M. Brown3, Andrea K. Dupree4, Daniel C. Fabrycky5, Eric B. Ford6, Jonathan J. Fortney5, Ronald L. Gilliland7, Howard Isaacson8, David W. Latham4, Geoffrey W. Marcy8, Samuel N. Quinn9, Samuel N. Quinn4, Darin Ragozzine4, Avi Shporer3, William J. Borucki1, David R. Ciardi10, Thomas N. Gautier10, Michael R. Haas1, Jon M. Jenkins1, David G. Koch1, Jack J. Lissauer1, William Rapin1, Gibor Basri8, Alan P. Boss11, Lars A. Buchhave12, Joshua A. Carter4, David Charbonneau4, Joergen Christensen-Dalsgaard13, Bruce D. Clarke10, William D. Cochran14, Brice-Olivier Demory15, Jean-Michel Desert4, Edna DeVore16, Laurance R. Doyle16, Gilbert A. Esquerdo4, Mark E. Everett, Francois Fressin4, John C. Geary4, Forrest R. Girouard1, Alan Gould17, Jennifer R. Hall1, Matthew J. Holman4, Andrew W. Howard8, Steve B. Howell1, Khadeejah A. Ibrahim1, Karen Kinemuchi1, Hans Kjeldsen13, Todd C. Klaus1, Jie Li1, Philip W. Lucas18, Søren Meibom4, Robert L. Morris1, Andrej Prsa19, Elisa V. Quintana1, Dwight T. Sanderfer1, Dimitar Sasselov4, Shawn Seader1, Jeffrey C. Smith1, Jason H. Steffen20, Martin Still1, Martin C. Stumpe1, Jill Tarter16, Peter Tenenbaum1, Guillermo Torres4, Joseph D. Twicken1, Kamal Uddin1, Jeffrey Van Cleve1, Lucianne M. Walkowicz21, William F. Welsh22 
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors verified nearly 5000 periodic transit-like signals against astrophysical and instrumental false positives yielding 1108 viable new transiting planet candidates, bringing the total count up to over 2300.
Abstract: New transiting planet candidates are identified in 16 months (2009 May-2010 September) of data from the Kepler spacecraft. Nearly 5000 periodic transit-like signals are vetted against astrophysical and instrumental false positives yielding 1108 viable new planet candidates, bringing the total count up to over 2300. Improved vetting metrics are employed, contributing to higher catalog reliability. Most notable is the noise-weighted robust averaging of multi-quarter photo-center offsets derived from difference image analysis that identifies likely background eclipsing binaries. Twenty-two months of photometry are used for the purpose of characterizing each of the candidates. Ephemerides (transit epoch, T_0, and orbital period, P) are tabulated as well as the products of light curve modeling: reduced radius (R_P/R_★), reduced semimajor axis (d/R_★), and impact parameter (b). The largest fractional increases are seen for the smallest planet candidates (201% for candidates smaller than 2 R_⊕ compared to 53% for candidates larger than 2 R_⊕) and those at longer orbital periods (124% for candidates outside of 50 day orbits versus 86% for candidates inside of 50 day orbits). The gains are larger than expected from increasing the observing window from 13 months (Quarters 1-5) to 16 months (Quarters 1-6) even in regions of parameter space where one would have expected the previous catalogs to be complete. Analyses of planet frequencies based on previous catalogs will be affected by such incompleteness. The fraction of all planet candidate host stars with multiple candidates has grown from 17% to 20%, and the paucity of short-period giant planets in multiple systems is still evident. The progression toward smaller planets at longer orbital periods with each new catalog release suggests that Earth-size planets in the habitable zone are forthcoming if, indeed, such planets are abundant.

1,271 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the Kepler mission released data for 156,453 stars observed from the beginning of the science observations on 2009 May 2 through September 16, and there are 1235 planetary candidates with transit-like signatures detected in this period.
Abstract: On 2011 February 1 the Kepler mission released data for 156,453 stars observed from the beginning of the science observations on 2009 May 2 through September 16. There are 1235 planetary candidates with transit-like signatures detected in this period. These are associated with 997 host stars. Distributions of the characteristics of the planetary candidates are separated into five class sizes: 68 candidates of approximately Earth-size (R_p < 1.25 R_⊕), 288 super-Earth-size (1.25 R_⊕ ≤ R_p < 2 R_⊕), 662 Neptune-size (2 R_⊕ ≤ R_p < 6 R_⊕), 165 Jupiter-size (6 R_⊕ ≤ R_p < 15 R_⊕), and 19 up to twice the size of Jupiter (15 R_⊕ ≤ R_p < 22 R_⊕). In the temperature range appropriate for the habitable zone, 54 candidates are found with sizes ranging from Earth-size to larger than that of Jupiter. Six are less than twice the size of the Earth. Over 74% of the planetary candidates are smaller than Neptune. The observed number versus size distribution of planetary candidates increases to a peak at two to three times the Earth-size and then declines inversely proportional to the area of the candidate. Our current best estimates of the intrinsic frequencies of planetary candidates, after correcting for geometric and sensitivity biases, are 5% for Earth-size candidates, 8% for super-Earth-size candidates, 18% for Neptune-size candidates, 2% for Jupiter-size candidates, and 0.1% for very large candidates; a total of 0.34 candidates per star. Multi-candidate, transiting systems are frequent; 17% of the host stars have multi-candidate systems, and 34% of all the candidates are part of multi-candidate systems.

1,241 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used the noise-weighted robust averaging of multi-quarter photo-center offsets derived from difference image analysis, which identifies likely background eclipsing binaries.
Abstract: New transiting planet candidates are identified in sixteen months (May 2009 - September 2010) of data from the Kepler spacecraft. Nearly five thousand periodic transit-like signals are vetted against astrophysical and instrumental false positives yielding 1,091 viable new planet candidates, bringing the total count up to over 2,300. Improved vetting metrics are employed, contributing to higher catalog reliability. Most notable is the noise-weighted robust averaging of multi-quarter photo-center offsets derived from difference image analysis which identifies likely background eclipsing binaries. Twenty-two months of photometry are used for the purpose of characterizing each of the new candidates. Ephemerides (transit epoch, T_0, and orbital period, P) are tabulated as well as the products of light curve modeling: reduced radius (Rp/R*), reduced semi-major axis (d/R*), and impact parameter (b). The largest fractional increases are seen for the smallest planet candidates (197% for candidates smaller than 2Re compared to 52% for candidates larger than 2Re) and those at longer orbital periods (123% for candidates outside of 50-day orbits versus 85% for candidates inside of 50-day orbits). The gains are larger than expected from increasing the observing window from thirteen months (Quarter 1-- Quarter 5) to sixteen months (Quarter 1 -- Quarter 6). This demonstrates the benefit of continued development of pipeline analysis software. The fraction of all host stars with multiple candidates has grown from 17% to 20%, and the paucity of short-period giant planets in multiple systems is still evident. The progression toward smaller planets at longer orbital periods with each new catalog release suggests that Earth-size planets in the Habitable Zone are forthcoming if, indeed, such planets are abundant.

1,162 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report the distribution of planets as a function of planet radius, orbital period, and stellar effective temperature for orbital periods less than 50 days around solar-type (GK) stars.
Abstract: We report the distribution of planets as a function of planet radius, orbital period, and stellar effective temperature for orbital periods less than 50 days around solar-type (GK) stars. These results are based on the 1235 planets (formally "planet candidates") from the Kepler mission that include a nearly complete set of detected planets as small as 2 R_⊕. For each of the 156,000 target stars, we assess the detectability of planets as a function of planet radius, R_p, and orbital period, P, using a measure of the detection efficiency for each star. We also correct for the geometric probability of transit, R_*/a. We consider first Kepler target stars within the "solar subset" having T_eff = 4100-6100 K, log g = 4.0-4.9, and Kepler magnitude K_p 2 R_⊕ we measure an occurrence of less than 0.001 planets per star. For all planets with orbital periods less than 50 days, we measure occurrence of 0.130 ± 0.008, 0.023 ± 0.003, and 0.013 ± 0.002 planets per star for planets with radii 2-4, 4-8, and 8-32 R_⊕, in agreement with Doppler surveys. We fit occurrence as a function of P to a power-law model with an exponential cutoff below a critical period P_0. For smaller planets, P_0 has larger values, suggesting that the "parking distance" for migrating planets moves outward with decreasing planet size. We also measured planet occurrence over a broader stellar T_eff range of 3600-7100 K, spanning M0 to F2 dwarfs. Over this range, the occurrence of 2-4 R_⊕ planets in the Kepler field increases with decreasing T_eff, with these small planets being seven times more abundant around cool stars (3600-4100 K) than the hottest stars in our sample (6600-7100 K).

1,159 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A review of the present-day mass function and initial mass function in various components of the Galaxy (disk, spheroid, young, and globular clusters) and in conditions characteristic of early star formation is presented in this paper.
Abstract: We review recent determinations of the present-day mass function (PDMF) and initial mass function (IMF) in various components of the Galaxy—disk, spheroid, young, and globular clusters—and in conditions characteristic of early star formation. As a general feature, the IMF is found to depend weakly on the environment and to be well described by a power-law form forM , and a lognormal form below, except possibly for m!1 early star formation conditions. The disk IMF for single objects has a characteristic mass around M , m!0.08 c and a variance in logarithmic mass , whereas the IMF for multiple systems hasM , and . j!0.7 m!0.2 j!0.6 c The extension of the single MF into the brown dwarf regime is in good agreement with present estimates of L- and T-dwarf densities and yields a disk brown dwarf number density comparable to the stellar one, n!n! BD " pc !3 .T he IMF of young clusters is found to be consistent with the disk fi eld IMF, providing the same correction 0.1 for unresolved binaries, confirming the fact that young star clusters and disk field stars represent the same stellar population. Dynamical effects, yielding depletion of the lowest mass objects, are found to become consequential for ages!130 Myr. The spheroid IMF relies on much less robust grounds. The large metallicity spread in the local subdwarf photometric sample, in particular, remains puzzling. Recent observations suggest that there is a continuous kinematic shear between the thick-disk population, present in local samples, and the genuine spheroid one. This enables us to derive only an upper limit for the spheroid mass density and IMF. Within all the uncertainties, the latter is found to be similar to the one derived for globular clusters and is well represented also by a lognormal form with a characteristic mass slightly larger than for the disk, M , ,e xcluding as ignif icant population of m!0.2-0.3 c brown dwarfs in globular clusters and in the spheroid. The IMF characteristic of early star formation at large redshift remains undetermined, but different observational constraints suggest that it does not extend below!1M , .T hese results suggest a characteristic mass for star formation that decreases with time, from conditions prevailing at large redshift to conditions characteristic of the spheroid (or thick disk) to present-day conditions.Theseconclusions,however, remain speculative, given the large uncertainties in the spheroid and early star IMF determinations. These IMFs allow a reasonably robust determination of the Galactic present-day and initial stellar and brown dwarf contents. They also have important galactic implications beyond the Milky Way in yielding more accurate mass-to-light ratio determinations. The mass-to-light ratios obtained with the disk and the spheroid IMF yield values 1.8-1.4 times smaller than for a Salpeter IMF, respectively, in agreement with various recent dynamical determinations. This general IMF determination is examined in the context of star formation theory. None of the theories based on a Jeans-type mechanism, where fragmentation is due only to gravity, can fulfill all the observational constraints on star formation and predict a large number of substellar objects. On the other hand, recent numerical simulations of compressible turbulence, in particular in super-Alfvenic conditions, seem to reproduce both qualitatively and quantitatively the stellar and substellar IMF and thus provide an appealing theoretical foundation. In this picture, star formation is induced by the dissipation of large-scale turbulence to smaller scales through radiative MHD shocks, producing filamentary structures. These shocks produce local nonequilibrium structures with large density contrasts, which collapse eventually in gravitationally bound objects under the combined influence of turbulence and gravity. The concept of a single Jeans mass is replaced by a distribution of local Jeans masses, representative of the lognormal probability density function of the turbulent gas. Objects below the mean thermal Jeans mass still have a possibility to collapse, although with a decreasing probability.

8,218 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Dec 2010
TL;DR: The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is mapping the whole sky following its launch on 14 December 2009 and completed its first full coverage of the sky on July 17 as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The all sky surveys done by the Palomar Observatory Schmidt, the European Southern Observatory Schmidt, and the United Kingdom Schmidt, the InfraRed Astronomical Satellite and the 2 Micron All Sky Survey have proven to be extremely useful tools for astronomy with value that lasts for decades. The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer is mapping the whole sky following its launch on 14 December 2009. WISE began surveying the sky on 14 Jan 2010 and completed its first full coverage of the sky on July 17. The survey will continue to cover the sky a second time until the cryogen is exhausted (anticipated in November 2010). WISE is achieving 5 sigma point source sensitivities better than 0.08, 0.11, 1 and 6 mJy in unconfused regions on the ecliptic in bands centered at wavelengths of 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 micrometers. Sensitivity improves toward the ecliptic poles due to denser coverage and lower zodiacal background. The angular resolution is 6.1", 6.4", 6.5" and 12.0" at 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 micrometers, and the astrometric precision for high SNR sources is better than 0.15".

7,182 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Adrian M. Price-Whelan1, B. M. Sipőcz1, Hans Moritz Günther1, P. L. Lim1, Steven M. Crawford1, S. Conseil1, D. L. Shupe1, M. W. Craig1, N. Dencheva1, Adam Ginsburg1, Jacob T VanderPlas1, Larry Bradley1, David Pérez-Suárez1, M. de Val-Borro1, T. L. Aldcroft1, Kelle L. Cruz1, Thomas P. Robitaille1, E. J. Tollerud1, C. Ardelean1, Tomáš Babej1, Y. P. Bach1, Matteo Bachetti1, A. V. Bakanov1, Steven P. Bamford1, Geert Barentsen1, Pauline Barmby1, Andreas Baumbach1, Katherine Berry1, F. Biscani1, Médéric Boquien1, K. A. Bostroem1, L. G. Bouma1, G. B. Brammer1, E. M. Bray1, H. Breytenbach1, H. Buddelmeijer1, D. J. Burke1, G. Calderone1, J. L. Cano Rodríguez1, Mihai Cara1, José Vinícius de Miranda Cardoso1, S. Cheedella1, Y. Copin1, Lia Corrales1, Devin Crichton1, D. DÁvella1, Christoph Deil1, É. Depagne1, J. P. Dietrich1, Axel Donath1, M. Droettboom1, Nicholas Earl1, T. Erben1, Sebastien Fabbro1, Leonardo Ferreira1, T. Finethy1, R. T. Fox1, Lehman H. Garrison1, S. L. J. Gibbons1, Daniel A. Goldstein1, Ralf Gommers1, Johnny P. Greco1, P. Greenfield1, A. M. Groener1, Frédéric Grollier1, A. Hagen1, P. Hirst1, Derek Homeier1, Anthony Horton1, Griffin Hosseinzadeh1, L. Hu1, J. S. Hunkeler1, Ž. Ivezić1, A. Jain1, T. Jenness1, G. Kanarek1, Sarah Kendrew1, Nicholas S. Kern1, Wolfgang Kerzendorf1, A. Khvalko1, J. King1, D. Kirkby1, A. M. Kulkarni1, Ashok Kumar1, Antony Lee1, D. Lenz1, S. P. Littlefair1, Zhiyuan Ma1, D. M. Macleod1, M. Mastropietro1, C. McCully1, S. Montagnac1, Brett M. Morris1, M. Mueller1, Stuart Mumford1, D. Muna1, Nicholas A. Murphy1, Stefan Nelson1, G. H. Nguyen1, Joe Philip Ninan1, M. Nöthe1, S. Ogaz1, Seog Oh1, J. K. Parejko1, N. R. Parley1, Sergio Pascual1, R. Patil1, A. A. Patil1, A. L. Plunkett1, Jason X. Prochaska1, T. Rastogi1, V. Reddy Janga1, J. Sabater1, Parikshit Sakurikar1, Michael Seifert1, L. E. Sherbert1, H. Sherwood-Taylor1, A. Y. Shih1, J. Sick1, M. T. Silbiger1, Sudheesh Singanamalla1, Leo Singer1, P. H. Sladen1, K. A. Sooley1, S. Sornarajah1, Ole Streicher1, P. Teuben1, Scott Thomas1, Grant R. Tremblay1, J. Turner1, V. Terrón1, M. H. van Kerkwijk1, A. de la Vega1, Laura L. Watkins1, B. A. Weaver1, J. Whitmore1, Julien Woillez1, Victor Zabalza1, Astropy Contributors1 
TL;DR: The Astropy project as discussed by the authors is a Python project supporting the development of open-source and openly developed Python packages that provide commonly needed functionality to the astronomical community, including the core package astropy.
Abstract: The Astropy Project supports and fosters the development of open-source and openly developed Python packages that provide commonly needed functionality to the astronomical community. A key element of the Astropy Project is the core package astropy, which serves as the foundation for more specialized projects and packages. In this article, we provide an overview of the organization of the Astropy project and summarize key features in the core package, as of the recent major release, version 2.0. We then describe the project infrastructure designed to facilitate and support development for a broader ecosystem of interoperable packages. We conclude with a future outlook of planned new features and directions for the broader Astropy Project.

4,044 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The first extensive catalog of galactic embedded clusters is compiled, finding that the embedded cluster birthrate exceeds that of visible open clusters by an order of magnitude or more indicating a high infant mortality rate for protocluster systems.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract Stellar clusters are born embedded within giant molecular clouds (GMCs) and during their formation and early evolution are often only visible at infrared wavelengths, being heavily obscured by dust. Over the past 15 years advances in infrared detection capabilities have enabled the first systematic studies of embedded clusters in galactic molecular clouds. In this article we review the current state of empirical knowledge concerning these extremely young protocluster systems. From a survey of the literature we compile the first extensive catalog of galactic embedded clusters. We use the catalog to construct the mass function and estimate the birthrate for embedded clusters within ∼2 kpc of the sun. We find that the embedded cluster birthrate exceeds that of visible open clusters by an order of magnitude or more indicating a high infant mortality rate for protocluster systems. Less than 4–7% of embedded clusters survive emergence from molecular clouds to become bound clusters of Pleiades age. Th...

2,949 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) as discussed by the authors will search for planets transiting bright and nearby stars using four wide-field optical charge-coupled device cameras to monitor at least 200,000 main-sequence dwarf stars.
Abstract: The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will search for planets transiting bright and nearby stars. TESS has been selected by NASA for launch in 2017 as an Astrophysics Explorer mission. The spacecraft will be placed into a highly elliptical 13.7-day orbit around the Earth. During its 2-year mission, TESS will employ four wide-field optical charge-coupled device cameras to monitor at least 200,000 main-sequence dwarf stars with I C ≈4−13 for temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits. Each star will be observed for an interval ranging from 1 month to 1 year, depending mainly on the star’s ecliptic latitude. The longest observing intervals will be for stars near the ecliptic poles, which are the optimal locations for follow-up observations with the James Webb Space Telescope. Brightness measurements of preselected target stars will be recorded every 2 min, and full frame images will be recorded every 30 min. TESS stars will be 10 to 100 times brighter than those surveyed by the pioneering Kepler mission. This will make TESS planets easier to characterize with follow-up observations. TESS is expected to find more than a thousand planets smaller than Neptune, including dozens that are comparable in size to the Earth. Public data releases will occur every 4 months, inviting immediate community-wide efforts to study the new planets. The TESS legacy will be a catalog of the nearest and brightest stars hosting transiting planets, which will endure as highly favorable targets for detailed investigations.

2,604 citations