GTC/CanariCam Deep Mid-infrared Imaging Survey of Northern Stars within 5 pc
Abstract In this work we present the results of a direct imaging survey for brown dwarf companions around the nearest stars at the mid-infrared 10 micron range ( λ c = 8.7 μ m, Δ λ = 1.1 μ m) using the CanariCam instrument on the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). We imaged the 25 nearest stella...
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Published in | The Astrophysical journal Vol. 923; no. 1; pp. 119 - 142 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Philadelphia
The American Astronomical Society
01.12.2021
IOP Publishing |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Abstract
In this work we present the results of a direct imaging survey for brown dwarf companions around the nearest stars at the mid-infrared 10 micron range (
λ
c
= 8.7
μ
m, Δ
λ
= 1.1
μ
m) using the CanariCam instrument on the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). We imaged the 25 nearest stellar systems within 5 pc of the Sun at declinations
δ
> −25° (at least half have planets from radial-velocity studies), reaching a mean detection limit of 11.3 ± 0.2 mag (1.5 mJy) in the Si-2 8.7
μ
m band over a range of angular separations from 1″ to 10″. This would have allowed us to uncover substellar companions at projected orbital separations between ∼2 and 50 au, with effective temperatures down to 600 K and masses greater than 30
M
Jup
assuming an average age of 5 Gyr and masses down to the deuterium-burning mass limit for objects with ages <1 Gyr. From the nondetection of such companions, we determined upper limits on their occurrence rate at depths and orbital separations yet unexplored by deep imaging programs. For the M dwarfs, the main component of our sample, we found with a 90% confidence level that fewer than 20% of these low-mass stars have L- and T-type brown dwarf companions with
m
≳ 30
M
Jup
and
T
eff
≳ 600 K at ∼3.5–35 au projected orbital separations. |
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Bibliography: | AAS31163 Stars and Stellar Physics |
ISSN: | 0004-637X 1538-4357 |
DOI: | 10.3847/1538-4357/ac2c0a |