Simplified Analytical Models of Exoplanet Transit Light Curves

The discovery of the first exoplanet spurred significant effort and interest in detecting more such worlds using different techniques such as measuring radial velocity, gravitational microlensing, and transit light curves. Here, we describe a set of exercises involving a series of simplified analytical models of exoplanet transit light curves. This exercise set has been used in an upper-level computational physics course and could be used as the basis for an individual or group project. Because the models rely almost entirely on geometry, one or more of the exercises can be used at the beginning of a course to extract physical insight and connect to contemporary exoplanet research and demonstrate the use of models in research.