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Context: Detecting moons around exoplanets is a major goal of current andfuture observatories. Moons are suspected to influence rocky exoplanethabitability, and gaseous exoplanets in stellar habitable zones could harbourabundant and diverse moons to target in the search for extraterrestrialhabitats. Exomoons will contribute to exoplanetary signals but are virtuallyundetectable with current methods. Aims: We identify and analyse traces ofexomoons in the temporal variation of total and polarised fluxes of starlightreflected by an Earth-like exoplanet and its spatially unresolved moon acrossall phase angles, with both orbits viewed in an edge-on geometry. Methods: Wecompute the total and linearly polarised fluxes, and the degree of linearpolarization P of starlight that is reflected by the exoplanet with its moonalong their orbits, accounting for the temporal variation of the visibility ofthe planetary and lunar disks, and including effects of mutual transits andmutual eclipses. Our computations pertain to a wavelength of 450 nm. Results:Total flux F shows regular dips due to planetary and lunar transits andeclipses. Polarization P shows regular peaks due to planetary transits andlunar eclipses, and P can increase and/or slightly decrease during lunartransits and planetary eclipses. Changes in F and P will depend on the radii ofthe planet and moon, on their reflective properties, and their orbits, and areabout one magnitude smaller than the smooth background signals. The typicalduration of a transit or an eclipse is a few hours. Conclusions: Traces of anexomoon due to planetary and lunar transits and eclipses show up in F and P ofsunlight reflected by planet-moon systems and could be searched for inexoplanet flux and/or polarisation phase functions.

Traces of exomoons in computed flux and polarization phase curves of starlight reflected by exoplanets