Fundamental Properties of Solar-Type Eclipsing Binary Stars, and Kinematic Biases of Exoplanet Host Stars

Abstract

This thesis is in three parts: 1) a kinematical study of exoplanet host stars, 2) a study of the detached eclipsing binary V1094 Tau and 3) and observations of other eclipsing binaries.

Part I investigates kinematical biases between two methods of detecting exoplanets; the ground based transit and radial velocity methods. Distances of the host stars from each method lie in almost non-overlapping groups. Samples of host stars from each group are selected. They are compared by means of matching comparison samples of stars not known to have exoplanets. The detection methods are found to introduce a negligible bias into the metallicities of the host stars but the ground based transit method introduces a median age bias of about -2 Gyr.

Part II describes a detailed analysis of V1094 Tau. Spectra were analysed by the cross-correlation software TODCOR to obtain radial velocities, and uvby photometric light curves were analysed by the JKTEBOP software.

Part III describes an observing run at SAAO Sutherland, aimed to survey detached eclipsing binaries. Light curves and two spectra each from two binaries were analysed, to determine masses and radii to the 10 to 30% level. This is a proof in principle that runs on 2-metre class telescopes can identify targets for detailed follow-up observations.