MARVELS-1b: A Short-period, Brown Dwarf Desert Candidate from the SDSS-III Marvels Planet Search

Creators: Lee, Brian L.; van Eyken, J. C.; Kane, Stephen R.

Abstract

We present a new short-period brown dwarf (BD) candidate around the star TYC 1240-00945-1. This candidate was discovered in the first year of the Multi-object APO Radial Velocity Exoplanets Large-area Survey (MARVELS), which is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) III, and we designate the BD as MARVELS-1b. MARVELS uses the technique of dispersed fixed-delay interferometery to simultaneously obtain radial velocity (RV) measurements for 60 objects per field using a single, custom-built instrument that is fiber fed from the SDSS 2.5 m telescope. From our 20 RV measurements spread over a ~370 day time baseline, we derive a Keplerian orbital fit with semi-amplitude K = 2.533 ± 0.025 km s^(–1), period P = 5.8953 ± 0.0004 days, and eccentricity consistent with circular. Independent follow-up RV data confirm the orbit. Adopting a mass of 1.37 ± 0.11 M_☉ for the slightly evolved F9 host star, we infer that the companion has a minimum mass of 28.0 ± 1.5 M_(Jup), a semimajor axis 0.071 ± 0.002 AU assuming an edge-on orbit, and is probably tidally synchronized. We find no evidence for coherent intrinsic variability of the host star at the period of the companion at levels greater than a few millimagnitudes. The companion has an a priori transit probability of ~14%. Although we find no evidence for transits, we cannot definitively rule them out for companion radii ≲ R_(Jup).

Additional Information

© 2011 American Astronomical Society. Received 2010 June 21; accepted 2010 November 8; published 2011 January 17. Funding for the MARVELS multi-object Doppler instrument was provided by the W.M. Keck Foundation and NSF with grant AST-0705139. The MARVELS survey was partially funded by the SDSS-III consortium, NSF Grant AST-0705139,NASA with grant NNX07AP14G and the University of Florida. Funding for SDSS-III has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Science Foundation, and the US Department of Energy. The SDSS-III Web site is http://www.sdss3.org/ SDSS-III is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the Participating Institutions of the SDSS-III Collaboration including the University of Arizona, the Brazilian Participation Group, University of Cambridge, University of Florida, the French Participation Group, the German Participation Group, the Michigan State/Notre Dame/JINA Participation Group, Johns Hopkins University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, New Mexico State University, New York University, the Ohio State University, University of Portsmouth, Princeton University, University of Tokyo, the University of Utah, Vanderbilt University, University of Virginia, University of Washington and Yale University. The Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) is a joint project of the University of Texas at Austin, the Pennsylvania State University, Stanford University, Ludwig-Maximilians- Universität München, and Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. The HET is named in honor of its principal benefactors, William P. Hobby and Robert E. Eberly. This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation. The authors thank Debra Fischer for kindly providing a preliminary version of her precise Doppler pipeline for use with HRS. FEROS spectra were observed at the ESO 2.2 m telescope under the ESO-ON agreement. This research is partially supported by funding from the Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds. The Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds is supported by the Pennsylvania State University, the Eberly College of Science, and the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium. K.G.S., L.H., and J.P. acknowledge funding support from the Vanderbilt Initiative in Data-Intensive Astrophysics (VIDA) from Vanderbilt University, and from NSF Career award AST-0349075. E.A. thanks NSF for CAREER Grant 0645416. G.F.P.M. acknowledges financial support from CNPq grant no. 476909/2006-6 and FAPERJ grant no. APQ1/26/170.687/2004. J.P.W. acknowledges support from NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship AST 08-02230.

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