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CaRM: Exploring the chromatic Rossiter-McLaughlin effect. The cases of HD 189733b and WASP-127b

E. A. S. Cristo, N. C. Santos, O. Demangeon, J. H. C. Martins, P. Figueira, N. Casasayas-Barris, M. R. Zapatero Osorio, F. Borsa, S. G. Sousa, M. Oshagh, G. Micela, H. M. Tabernero, J. V. Seidel, S. Cristiani, F. Pepe, R. Rebolo, V. Zh. Adibekyan, R. Allart, Y. Alibert, T. de Azevedo Silva, V. Bourrier, A. Cabral, E. Esparza-Borges, J. I. González Hernández, J. Lillo-Box, G. Lo Curto, C. Lovis, A. Manescau, P. Di Marcantonio, C. J. A. P. Martins, D. Mégevand, A. Mehner, N. J. Nunes, E. Palle, A. Sozzetti, A. Suárez Mascareño, S. Udry

Abstract
Aims. In this paper we introduce CaRM, a semi-automatic code for the retrieval of broadband transmission spectra of transiting planets through the chromatic Rossiter-McLaughlin method. We applied it to HARPS and ESPRESSO observations of two exoplanets to retrieve the transmission spectrum and we analyze its fitting transmission models.
Methods. We used the strong radius dependence of the Rossiter-McLaughlin (RM) effect amplitude, caused by planetary companions, to measure the apparent radius change caused by the exoplanet atmosphere. In order to retrieve the transmission spectrum, the radial velocities, which were computed over wavelength bins that encompass several spectral orders, were used to simultaneously fit the Keplerian motion and the RM effect. From this, the radius ratio was computed as a function of the wavelength, which allows one to retrieve the low-resolution broadband transmission spectrum of a given exoplanet. CaRM offers the possibility to use two Rossiter-McLaughlin models taken from ARoME and PyAstronomy, associated with a Keplerian function to fit radial velocities during transit observations automatically. Furthermore it offers the possibility to use some methods that could, in theory, mitigate the effect of perturbation in the radial velocities during transits.
Results. We applied CaRM to recover the transmission spectrum of HD 189733b and WASP-127b, with HARPS and ESPRESSO data, respectively. Our results for HD 189733b suggest that the blue part of the spectrum is dominated by Rayleigh scattering, which is compatible with former studies. The analysis of WASP-127b shows a flat transmission spectrum.
Conclusions. The CaRM code allows one to retrieve the transmission spectrum of a given exoplanet using minimal user interaction. We demonstrate that it allows one to compute the low-resolution broadband transmission spectra of exoplanets observed using high-resolution spectrographs such as HARPS and ESPRESSO.

Keywords
planets and satellites: atmospheres / techniques: spectroscopic

Notes
Based on Guaranteed Time Observations collected at the European Southern Observatory under ESO programme 1102.C-0744 by the ESPRESSO Consortium.

Astronomy & Astrophysics
Volume 660, Article Number A52, Number of pages 18
2022 April

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Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia COMPETE 2020 PORTUGAL 2020 União Europeia