THE GEMINI NICI PLANET-FINDING CAMPAIGN: THE FREQUENCY OF GIANT PLANETS AROUND YOUNG B AND A STARS
- Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States)
- European Southern Observatory, Alonso de Córdova 3107, Vitacura, Santiago (Chile)
- Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany)
- Gemini Observatory, Southern Operations Center, c/o AURA, Casilla 603, La Serena (Chile)
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)
- Departamento de Fisica, ICEx, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antonio Carlos 6627, 30270-901 Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil)
- University of Toronto at Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, Ontario M1C 1A4 (Canada)
- Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 5241 Broad Branch Road, N.W., Washington, DC 20015 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy, University of Oxford, DWB, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH (United Kingdom)
- Departamento de Astronomia, Universidade de Sao Paulo, IAG/USP, Rua do Matao 1226, 05508-900 Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil)
- Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8550 (Japan)
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA (United States)
We have carried out high contrast imaging of 70 young, nearby B and A stars to search for brown dwarf and planetary companions as part of the Gemini NICI Planet-Finding Campaign. Our survey represents the largest, deepest survey for planets around high-mass stars (≈1.5-2.5 M{sub ☉}) conducted to date and includes the planet hosts β Pic and Fomalhaut. We obtained follow-up astrometry of all candidate companions within 400 AU projected separation for stars in uncrowded fields and identified new low-mass companions to HD 1160 and HIP 79797. We have found that the previously known young brown dwarf companion to HIP 79797 is itself a tight (3 AU) binary, composed of brown dwarfs with masses 58{sup +21}{sub -20} M{sub Jup} and 55{sup +20}{sub -19} M{sub Jup}, making this system one of the rare substellar binaries in orbit around a star. Considering the contrast limits of our NICI data and the fact that we did not detect any planets, we use high-fidelity Monte Carlo simulations to show that fewer than 20% of 2 M{sub ☉} stars can have giant planets greater than 4 M{sub Jup} between 59 and 460 AU at 95% confidence, and fewer than 10% of these stars can have a planet more massive than 10 M{sub Jup} between 38 and 650 AU. Overall, we find that large-separation giant planets are not common around B and A stars: fewer than 10% of B and A stars can have an analog to the HR 8799 b (7 M{sub Jup}, 68 AU) planet at 95% confidence. We also describe a new Bayesian technique for determining the ages of field B and A stars from photometry and theoretical isochrones. Our method produces more plausible ages for high-mass stars than previous age-dating techniques, which tend to underestimate stellar ages and their uncertainties.
- OSTI ID:
- 22270883
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 776, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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