A Search for Planets Transiting the M Dwarf Debris Disk Host, AU Microscopii

Abstract

We present high cadence, high precision multi-band photometry of the young, M1Ve, debris disk star, AU Microscopii. The data were obtained in three continuum filters spanning a wavelength range from 4500Åto 6600Å, plus H$\alpha$, over 28 nights in 2005. The lightcurves show intrinsic stellar variability due to starspots with an amplitude in the blue band of 0.051 magnitudes and a period of 4.847 days. In addition, three large flares were detected in the data which all occur near the minimum brightness of the star. We remove the intrinsic stellar variability and combine the lightcurves of all the filters in order to search for transits by possible planetary companions orbiting in the plane of the nearly edge-on debris disk. The combined final lightcurve has a sampling of 0.35 minutes and a standard deviation of 6.8 millimags (mmag). We performed Monte Carlo simulations by adding fake transits to the observed lightcurve and find with 95% significance that there are no Jupiter mass planets orbiting in the plane of the debris disk on circular orbits with periods, P $\le 5$ days. In addition, there are no young Neptune-like planets (with radii 2.5$\times$ smaller than the young Jupiter) on circular orbits with periods, P $\le 3$ days.

accepted to MNRAS

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Cited by in corpus (29)

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• RACE-OC Project: Rotation and variability in young stellar associations within 100 pc
• Observational Constraints on Neutron Star Masses and Radii
• Precise Infrared Radial Velocities from Keck/NIRSPEC and the Search for Young Planets
• One year of AU Mic with HARPS: II -- stellar activity and star-planet interaction
• Alignment in star-debris disc systems seen by Herschel
• Quasi-Periodic Oscillations and broadband variability in short magnetar bursts
• Common Proper Motion Companions to Nearby Stars: Ages and Evolution
• Collisional modelling of the AU Microscopii debris disc
• A Resolved Millimeter Emission Belt in the AU Mic Debris Disk
• One year of AU Mic with HARPS: I -- measuring the masses of the two transiting planets
• Magnetar Oscillations II: spectral method
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• A Seven-Day Multi-Wavelength Flare Campaign on AU Mic I: High-Time Resolution Light Curves and the Thermal Empirical Neupert Effect
• Starspot mapping with adaptive parallel tempering. II. Application to TESS data for M-dwarf flare stars, AU Microscopii, YZ Canis Minoris, and EV Lacertae
• Looking for Giant Earths in the HD 209458 System: A Search for Transits in MOST Space-based Photometry
• First long-term activity study of AU Microscopii: a possible chromospheric cycle
• Constraining a Model of Turbulent Coronal Heating for AU Microscopii with X-Ray, Radio, and Millimeter Observations
• Constraining the Origin of Magnetar Flares
• Could the compact remnant of SN 1987A be a quark star?
• High Fidelity Imaging of the Inner AU Mic Debris Disk: Evidence of Differential Wind Sculpting?
• X-raying the AU Microscopii debris disk
• Relativistic hybrid stars with super-strong toroidal magnetic fields: An evolutionary track with QCD phase transition
• Optical Coronagraphic Spectroscopy of AU Mic: Evidence of Time Variable Colors?
• A possible misaligned orbit for the young planet AU Mic c
• Does Sub-millisecond Pulsar XTE J1739-285 Contain a Low Magnetic Neutron Star or Quark Star ?
• The triple system AT Mic AB + AU Mic in the beta Pictoris Association