The Gemini NICI Planet-Finding Campaign: The Frequency of Giant Planets around Young B and A Stars
Eric L. Nielsen, Michael C. Liu, Zahed Wahhaj, Beth A. Biller, Thomas, L. Hayward, Laird M. Close, Jared R. Males, Andrew J. Skemer, Mark Chun,, Christ Ftaclas, Silvia H. P. Alencar, Pawel Artymowicz, Alan Boss, Fraser, Clarke, Elisabete de Gouveia Dal Pino, Jane Gregorio-Hetem

TL;DR
This study conducted the largest and deepest high-contrast imaging survey of young B and A stars, finding that giant planets at large separations are rare around such high-mass stars, and introduced a new Bayesian age estimation method.
Contribution
It provides the first comprehensive survey of giant planets around high-mass stars and develops a novel Bayesian technique for more accurate age determination of these stars.
Findings
Fewer than 20% of 2 M_sun stars host giant planets >4 M_Jup between 59-460 AU.
Less than 10% of B and A stars have planets >10 M_Jup between 38-650 AU.
Large-separation giant planets are uncommon around B and A stars.
Abstract
We have carried out high contrast imaging of 70 young, nearby B and A stars to search for brown dwarf and planetary companions as part of the Gemini NICI Planet-Finding Campaign. Our survey represents the largest, deepest survey for planets around high-mass stars (~1.5-2.5 M_sun) conducted to date and includes the planet hosts beta Pic and Fomalhaut. We obtained follow-up astrometry of all candidate companions within 400 AU projected separation for stars in uncrowded fields and identified new low-mass companions to HD 1160 and HIP 79797. We have found that the previously known young brown dwarf companion to HIP 79797 is itself a tight (3 AU) binary, composed of brown dwarfs with masses 58 (+21, -20) M_Jup and 55 (+20, -19) M_Jup, making this system one of the rare substellar binaries in orbit around a star. Considering the contrast limits of our NICI data and the fact that we did not…
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