Most circumbinary planets have been discovered by their transits, limiting our understanding of such systems to those with mutually coplanar architectures. This bias makes it difficult to infer the true circumbinary planet population, highlighting the need for alternative detection methods that do not rely on transits. To address this, we explore apsidal precession in eclipsing binaries as a dynamical signature of planetary companions. Using TESS photometry for a large sample of eclipsing binaries drawn from the Gaia DR3 catalogue, we identify systems exhibiting measurable apsidal precession that cannot be explained by general relativistic, tidal, or rotational effects alone. These excess precession signals point to the presence of additional gravitational perturbers and allow constraints to be placed on the masses and orbital separations of potential companions. I will present a new sample of circumbinary planet candidates identified through this dynamical approach, along with several higher-mass companion candidates. Although the inferred companion properties remain degenerate, this work demonstrates the promise of apsidal precession as a tool for uncovering potentially misaligned circumbinary systems. I will highlight our ongoing efforts to incorporate radial velocity constraints and extend this method to upcoming data releases (e.g. Gaia DR4), helping to reduce these degeneracies and move toward a complete census of circumbinary companions.
", "publication_date": "2026-06-05", "publisher": "Zenodo", "references": [ { "reference": "Thornton, M., et al. (2026), MNRAS, 548, 3, https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag515" } ], "related_identifiers": [ { "identifier": "10.1093/mnras/stag515", "relation_type": { "id": "ispublishedin", "title": { "de": "Ist ver\u00f6ffentlicht in", "en": "Is published in" } }, "resource_type": { "id": "publication", "title": { "de": "Publikation", "en": "Publication" } }, "scheme": "doi" } ], "resource_type": { "id": "poster", "title": { "de": "Poster", "en": "Poster" } }, "rights": [ { "description": { "en": "The Creative Commons Attribution license allows re-distribution and re-use of a licensed work on the condition that the creator is appropriately credited." }, "icon": "cc-by-icon", "id": "cc-by-4.0", "props": { "scheme": "spdx", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode" }, "title": { "en": "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International" } } ], "subjects": [ { "subject": "Exoplanets" }, { "subject": "Circumbinary" }, { "subject": "Binary Stars" }, { "subject": "Apsidal Precession" }, { "subject": "Eclipses" } ], "title": "Detecting Circumbinary Planets via Apsidal Precession in Eclipsing Binaries" }, "parent": { "access": { "owned_by": { "user": "1675802" }, "settings": { "accept_conditions_text": null, "allow_guest_requests": false, "allow_user_requests": false, "secret_link_expiration": 0 } }, "communities": { "default": "9ba7fd7e-a60f-4b7a-b3da-a178c21c5fda", "entries": [ { "access": { "member_policy": "open", "members_visibility": "public", "record_submission_policy": "open", "review_policy": "closed", "visibility": "public" }, "children": { "allow": false }, "created": "2026-04-06T12:19:20.716447+00:00", "custom_fields": { "subjects": [ { "id": "euroscivoc:769" }, { "id": "euroscivoc:763" }, { "id": "euroscivoc:1807" }, { "id": "euroscivoc:757" } ] }, "deletion_status": { "is_deleted": false, "status": "P" }, "id": "9ba7fd7e-a60f-4b7a-b3da-a178c21c5fda", "links": {}, "metadata": { "curation_policy": "All proceeding submissions will be reviewed by the curator(s) to ensure they are from registered conference attendees (in person or virtual) and adhere to the conference code of conduct.
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