Cool Customers in the Stellar Graveyard I: Limits to Extrasolar Planets Around the White Dwarf G29-38

Abstract

We present high contrast images of the hydrogen white dwarf G 29-38 taken in the near infrared with the Hubble Space Telescope and the Gemini North Telescope as part of a high contrast imaging search for substellar objects in orbit around nearby white dwarfs. We review the current limits on planetary companions for G29-38, the only nearby white dwarf with an infrared excess due to a dust disk. We add our recent observations to these limits to produce extremely tight constraints on the types of possible companions that could be present. No objects $>$ 6 M${}_{Jup}$ are detected in our data at projected separations $>$ 12 AU, and no objects $>$ 16 M${}_{Jup}$ are detected for separations from 3 to 12 AU, assuming a total system age of 1 Gyr. Limits for companions at separations $<$ 3 AU come from a combination of 2MASS photometry and previous studies of G29-38's pulsations. Our imaging with Gemini cannot confirm a tentative claim for the presence of a low mass brown dwarf. These observations demonstrate that a careful combination of several techniques can probe nearby white dwarfs for large planets and low mass brown dwarfs.

20 pages, 4 figures, Accepted to ApJ

References in corpus (11)

• Evolutionary models for cool brown dwarfs and extrasolar giant planets. The case of HD 20945
• A Tidally-Disrupted Asteroid Around the White Dwarf G29-38
• The Formation Rate, Mass and Luminosity Functions of DA White Dwarfs from the Palomar Green Survey
• Beyond the T Dwarfs: Theoretical Spectra, Colors, and Detectability of the Coolest Brown Dwarfs
• A Young White Dwarf Companion to Pulsar 1620-26: Evidence for Early Planet Formation
• JHK Magnitudes for L and T Dwarfs and Infrared Photometric Systems
• Spectra and Diagnostics for the Direct Detection of Wide-Separation Extrasolar Giant Planets
• A Possible Brown Dwarf Companion to the White Dwarf GD1400
• 3D kinematics of white dwarfs from the SPY project
• Cool Companions to White Dwarfs from the 2MASS Second Incremental Data Release
• Cool Customers in the Stellar Graveyard II: Limits to Substellar Objects Around Nearby DAZ White Dwarfs

Cited by in corpus (15)

• The New Class of Dusty DAZ White Dwarfs
• Unstable low-mass planetary systems as drivers of white dwarf pollution
• Measuring M dwarf Winds with DAZ White Dwarfs
• Dusty Disks around White Dwarfs I: Origin of Debris Disks
• Cool Companions to White Dwarf Stars from the Two Micron All Sky Survey All Sky Data Release
• The DODO Survey II: A Gemini Direct Imaging Search for Substellar and Planetary Mass Companions around Nearby Equatorial and Northern Hemisphere White Dwarfs
• Finding Planets Around White Dwarf Remnants of Massive Stars
• A New Method for Finding Nearby White Dwarf Exoplanets and Detecting Biosignatures
• Cool Customers in the Stellar Graveyard IV: Spitzer Search for Mid-IR excesses Around Five DAs
• An Extreme-AO Search for Giant Planets around a White Dwarf --VLT/SPHERE performance on a faint target GD 50
• Limits on Unresolved Planetary Companions to White Dwarf Remnants of 14 Intermediate-Mass Stars
• The "DODO" survey I: limits on ultra-cool substellar and planetary-mass companions to van Maanen's star (vMa 2)
• Can Gaia find planets around white dwarfs?
• Cool Customers in the Stellar Graveyard III: Limits to Substellar Objects around nearby White Dwarfs using CFHT
• Near-infrared spectroscopy of the very low mass companion to the hot DA white dwarf PG1234+482