PTF/M-dwarfs: A Large New M-dwarf Planetary Transit Survey

TL;DR

PTF/M-dwarfs is a large-scale, automated survey targeting M-dwarf stars to detect planetary transits, capable of finding planets from Jupiter to super-Earth sizes, with initial results from its first year of operation.

Contribution

This paper presents the design, implementation, and initial results of a novel, large-scale M-dwarf planetary transit survey using the Palomar Transient Factory system.

Findings

Survey has monitored nearly 30,000 M-dwarfs for Jupiter-sized planets.

Detected potential Neptune and super-Earth candidates.

Established a pipeline and methodology for future planet detection.

Abstract

PTF/M-dwarfs is a 100,000-target M-dwarf planetary transit survey, a Key Project of the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) collaboration. The survey is sensitive to Jupiter-radius planets around all of the target stars, and has sufficient precision to reach Neptunes and super-Earths for the best targets. The Palomar Transient Factory is a fully-automated, wide-field survey aimed at a systematic exploration of the optical transient sky. The survey is performed using a new 7.26 square degree camera installed on the 48 inch Samuel Oschin telescope at Palomar Observatory. Each 92-megapixel R-band exposure contains about 3,000 M-dwarfs usable for planet detection. In each PTF observational season PTF/M-dwarfs searches for Jupiter-radius planets around almost 30,000 M-dwarfs, Neptune-radius planets around approximately 500 M-dwarfs, and super-Earths around 100 targets. The full survey is expected to cover more than 100,000 targets over the next several years. Photometric and spectroscopic followup operations are performed on the Palomar 60-inch, LCOGT, Palomar 200-inch, MDM and Keck telescopes. The survey has been running since mid-2009. We detail the survey design, the survey's data analysis pipeline and the performance of the first year of operations.