Limits to tertiary astrometric companions in binary systems

Creators: Muterspaugh, Matthew W.; Lane, Benjamin F.; Kulkarni, S. R.; Burke, Bernard F.; Colavita, M. M.; Shao, M.

Abstract

The Palomar High-precision Astrometric Search for Exoplanet Systems (PHASES) has monitored 37 subarcsecond binary systems to determine whether their Keplerian orbits are perturbed by faint astrometric companions to either star. Software has been developed to evaluate the regions in a companion mass-period phase space in which the PHASES observations can exclude the possibility of face-on orbit perturbations. We present results for eight systems for which astrometric companions with masses as small as those of giant planets can be excluded.

Additional Information

© 2006 American Astronomical Society. Print publication: Issue 2 (2006 December 20); received 2006 May 31, accepted for publication 2006 August 21. PHASES benefits from the efforts of the PTI collaboration members who have each contributed to the development of an extremely reliable observational instrument. Without this outstanding engineering effort to produce a solid foundation, advanced phase-referencing techniques would not have been possible. We thank PTI's night assistant Kevin Rykoski for his efforts to maintain PTI in excellent condition and for operating PTI in phasereferencing mode every week. We thank Dimitri Pourbaix for helpful conversations about astrometric orbit fitting. Part of the work described in this paper was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Interferometer data was obtained at the Palomar Observatory using the NASA Palomar Testbed Interferometer, supported by NASA contracts to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This research has made use of the Washington Double Star Catalog maintained at the US Naval Observatory. This research has made use of the Simbad database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France. M.W. M. acknowledges theMIT Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences department for hosting him while this paper was written. B. F. L. acknowledges support from a Pappalardo Fellowship in Physics. PHASES is funded in part by the California Institute of Technology Astronomy Department, and by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under grant NNG05GJ58G issued through the Terrestrial Planet Finder Foundation Science Program. This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation through grants AST 0300096 and AST 0507590.

Attached Files

Published - MUTapj06.pdf

Files

MUTapj06.pdf

Files (592.5 kB)

Name	Size	Download all
MUTapj06.pdf md5:9a2a76dcf01471bac5145363f06f0713	592.5 kB	Preview Download

Additional details

	All versions	This version
Views	0	0
Downloads	0	0
Data volume	0 Bytes	0 Bytes