Possible circumbinary planet at DE CVn

A new entry among PCEB exoplanets

DE CVn: An Eclipsing Post-common Envelope Binary with a Circumbinary Disk and a Giant Planet

Quote :

We present a timing analysis of the eclipsing post-common envelope binary (PCEB) DE CVn. Based on new CCD photometric observations and published data, we found that the orbital period in DE CVn has a cyclic period oscillation with an amplitude of 28.08 s and a period of 11.22 years plus a rapid period decrease at a rate of $\dot{P}=-3.35\times {10}^{-11}{{ss}}^{-1}$. According to the evolutionary theory, secular period decreases in PCEBs arise from angular momentum losses (AMLs) driven by gravitational radiation (GR) and magnetic braking (MB). However, the observed orbital decay is too fast to be produced by AMLs via GR and MB, indicating that there could be another AML mechanism. We suggest that a circumbinary disk around DE CVn may be responsible for the additional AML. The disk mass was derived as a few ×10−4–10−3 M ⊙ , which is in agreement with that inferred from previous studies in the order of magnitude. The cyclic change is most likely the result of the gravitational perturbation by a circumbinary object due to the Applegate's mechanism failing to explain such a large period oscillation. The mass of the potential third body is calculated as ${M}_{3}\sin i^{\prime} =0.011(\pm 0.003)\,{M}_{\odot }$. Supposing the circumbinary companion and the eclipsing binary are coplanar, its mass would correspond to a giant planet. This hypothetical giant planet is moving in a circular orbit of a radius of ~5.75(±2.02) au around its host star.

I suppose that open-access pre-print is coming soon.

Another PCEB planet from Shengbang Qian and collaborators? I'm still not sure I believe that these oscillations are due to planets. The presence of a disc does sound suggestive and might be evidence towards the planet hypothesis (like NN Serpentis maybe?) but from the abstract it sounds like it is inferred from the braking model rather than detected from infrared excesses.

Listed at EPE (without (AB)b designation, though...)

http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/de_cvn_b/

arXiv version here: https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.08625

Still not convinced that the PCEB period variations are planetary.

why not a single tread as for microlensing events?

Stalker wrote:

why not a single tread as for microlensing events?

That's not unreasonable.