Constraints on Long-Period Planets from an L and M band Survey of Nearby Sun-Like Stars: Observations

We present the observational results of an L and M band Adaptive Optics (AO) imaging survey of 54 nearby, sunlike stars for extrasolar planets, carried out using the Clio camera on the MMT. We have concentrated more strongly than all other planet imaging surveys to date on very nearby F, G, and K stars, prioritizing stellar proximity higher than youth. Ours is also the first survey to include extensive observations in the M band, which supplement the primary L observations. Models predict much better planet/star flux ratios at the L and M bands than at more commonly used shorter wavelengths (i.e. the H band). We have carried out extensive blind simulations with fake planets inserted into the raw data to verify our sensitivity, and to establish a definitive relationship between source significance in $sigma$ and survey completeness. We find 97% confident-detection completeness for 10$sigma$ sources, but only 46% for 7$sigma$ sources -- raising concerns about the standard procedure of assuming high completeness at 5$sigma$, and demonstrating that blind sensitivity tests to establish the significance-completeness relation are an important analysis step for all planet-imaging surveys. We discovered a previously unknown, approximately 0.15 solar-mass stellar companion to the F9 star GJ 3876, at a projected separation of about 80 AU. Twelve additional candidate faint companions are detected around other stars. Of these, eleven are confirmed to be background stars, and one is a previously known brown dwarf. We obtained sensitivity to planetary-mass objects around almost all of our target stars, with sensitivity to objects below 3 Jupiter masses in the best cases. Constraints on planet populations based on this null result are presented in our Modeling Results paper.

Constraints on Long-Period Planets from an L and M band Survey of Nearby Sun-Like Stars: Modeling Results

We have carried out an L and M band Adaptive Optics (AO) extrasolar planet imaging survey of 54 nearby, sunlike stars using the Clio camera at the MMT. Our survey concentrates more strongly than all others to date on very nearby F, G, and K stars, in that we have prioritized proximity higher than youth. Our survey is also the first to include extensive observations in the M band, which supplemented the primary L observations. These longer wavelength bands are most useful for very nearby systems in which low temperature planets with red IR colors (i.e. H - L, H - M) could be detected. The survey detected no planets, but set interesting limits on planets and brown dwarfs in the star systems we investigated. We have interpreted our null result by means of extensive Monte Carlo simulations, and constrained the distributions of extrasolar planets in mass $M$ and semimajor axis $a$. If planets are distributed according to a power law with $dN propto M^{alpha} a^{beta} dM da$, normalized to be consistent with radial velocity statistics, we find that a distribution with $alpha = -1.1$ and $beta = -0.46$, truncated at 110 AU, is ruled out at the 90% confidence level. These particular values of $alpha$ and $beta$ are significant because they represent the most planet-rich case consistent with current statistics from radial velocity observations. With 90% confidence no more than 8.1% of stars like those in our survey have systems with three widely spaced, massive planets like the A-star HR 8799. Our observations show that giant planets in long-period orbits around sun-like stars are rare, confirming the results of shorter-wavelength surveys, and increasing the robustness of the conclusion.