Photodynamical Analysis of All Kepler Systems of Multiple Transiting Planets

As the study of exoplanets has developed, new observational constraints have illuminated the formation and evolution of planetary systems. Among these observations, the true distributions of planetary mass, radius, and density are at the forefront. The Kepler Space Telescope has provided an enormous wealth of data on the exoplanet radius distribution, but there is no existing homogeneous self-consistent catalog of mass measurements. A significant fraction of Kepler systems of multiple transiting planets have some mass measurements through the detection of planet-planet dynamical interactions. These interactions have been typically characterized using Transit Timing Variations (TTVs), but TTVs are often either ignored or analyzed independently from the lightcurve. A more self-consistent approach known as a photodynamical model combines an n-body integrator with synthetic light curves. Photodynamical models allow for a more precise inference of planetary densities and enable the study of small planets (which may not have discernable transit times). To support photodynamical modeling, we have developed the PhotoDynamical Multiplanet Model (PhoDyMM) which combines a photodynamical model with a Differential Evolution Markov Chain Monte Carlo (DEMCMC) algorithm for Bayesian parameter inference. PhoDyMM can easily work with arbitrary Kepler systems, enabling the self-consistent analysis of all Kepler systems of multiple exoplanets. We present the results of our primary PhoDyMM analysis which consists of homogeneous converged posterior distributions for the physical and orbital parameters of all known planets in all 752 Kepler systems with multiple transiting planets. This new catalog of parameters enables a wide variety of investigation of exoplanet dynamics.