Retrieval and Applications of Precise Radial Velocities to Detect Exoplanets

Abstract

The radial velocity (RV) technique has proven to be one of the most successful methods to search for extra-solar planets. RV measurements are necessary to independently confirm and determine the masses of orbiting bodies, and thus begin to probe their density and therefore compositions. In this thesis, we develop a set of novel routines to precisely measure the relative velocities of stellar sources with the RV technique by measuring the Doppler shift from high resolution stellar spectra. We demonstrate the applications of our codes to detect and characterize extra-solar planets with a variety of modern spectrographs.