Limits on the Detection of Planet Nine in the Dark Energy Survey

TL;DR

This study assesses the Dark Energy Survey's capability to detect hypothetical Planet Nine objects, finding it can recover a significant portion of such objects and thus constrains the possible characteristics of Planet Nine.

Contribution

It demonstrates the effectiveness of DES in constraining Planet Nine's parameter space by analyzing synthetic populations and recovery rates.

Findings

87% of simulated objects within the survey footprint are recovered.

Dark Energy Survey rules out an additional 5% of parameter space for Planet Nine.

Combines DES data with Zwicky Transient Facility to refine detection limits.

Abstract

Studies of the clustering of the most distant Kuiper belt objects in the outer solar system have hinted at the possible existence of a planet beyond Neptune referred to as Planet Nine (P9). Recent efforts have constrained the parameter space of the orbital elements of P9, allowing for the creation of a synthetic catalog of hypothetical P9s. By examining the potential recovery of such a catalog within numerous sky surveys, it is possible to further constrain the parameter space for P9, providing direction for a more targeted search. We examine the ability of the full six years of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) to recover a synthetic Planet Nine population presented in Brown and Batygin (2021a) [arXiv:2108.09868]. We find that out of 100,000 simulated objects, 11,709 cross the wide DES survey footprint of which 10,187 (87.0%) are recovered. This rules out an additional 5% of the parameter space after accounting for Planets Nine that would have been detected by both the Zwicky Transient Facility and DES.