MARVELS-1b: A Short-period, Brown Dwarf Desert Candidate from the SDSS-III Marvels Planet Search

February 2011 • 2011ApJ...728...32L

Authors • Lee, Brian L. • Ge, Jian • Fleming, Scott W. • Stassun, Keivan G. • Gaudi, B. Scott • Barnes, Rory • Mahadevan, Suvrath • Eastman, Jason D. • Wright, Jason • Siverd, Robert J. • Gary, Bruce • Ghezzi, Luan • Laws, Chris • Wisniewski, John P. • Porto de Mello, G. F. • Ogando, Ricardo L. C. • Maia, Marcio A. G. • Nicolaci da Costa, Luiz • Sivarani, Thirupathi • Pepper, Joshua • Nguyen, Duy Cuong • Hebb, Leslie • De Lee, Nathan • Wang, Ji • Wan, Xiaoke • Zhao, Bo • Chang, Liang • Groot, John • Varosi, Frank • Hearty, Fred • Hanna, Kevin • van Eyken, J. C. • Kane, Stephen R. • Agol, Eric • Bizyaev, Dmitry • Bochanski, John J. • Brewington, Howard • Chen, Zhiping • Costello, Erin • Dou, Liming • Eisenstein, Daniel J. • Fletcher, Adam • Ford, Eric B. • Guo, Pengcheng • Holtzman, Jon A. • Jiang, Peng • French Leger, R. • Liu, Jian • Long, Daniel C. • Malanushenko, Elena • Malanushenko, Viktor • Malik, Mohit • Oravetz, Daniel • Pan, Kaike • Rohan, Pais • Schneider, Donald P. • Shelden, Alaina • Snedden, Stephanie A. • Simmons, Audrey • Weaver, B. A. • Weinberg, David H. • Xie, Ji-Wei

Abstract • We present a new short-period brown dwarf (BD) candidate around the star TYC 1240-00945-1. This candidate was discovered in the first year of the Multi-object APO Radial Velocity Exoplanets Large-area Survey (MARVELS), which is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) III, and we designate the BD as MARVELS-1b. MARVELS uses the technique of dispersed fixed-delay interferometery to simultaneously obtain radial velocity (RV) measurements for 60 objects per field using a single, custom-built instrument that is fiber fed from the SDSS 2.5 m telescope. From our 20 RV measurements spread over a ~370 day time baseline, we derive a Keplerian orbital fit with semi-amplitude K = 2.533 ± 0.025 km s^-1, period P = 5.8953 ± 0.0004 days, and eccentricity consistent with circular. Independent follow-up RV data confirm the orbit. Adopting a mass of 1.37 ± 0.11 M _sun for the slightly evolved F9 host star, we infer that the companion has a minimum mass of 28.0 ± 1.5 M _Jup, a semimajor axis 0.071 ± 0.002 AU assuming an edge-on orbit, and is probably tidally synchronized. We find no evidence for coherent intrinsic variability of the host star at the period of the companion at levels greater than a few millimagnitudes. The companion has an a priori transit probability of ~14%. Although we find no evidence for transits, we cannot definitively rule them out for companion radii lsim1 R _Jup.

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Julian van Eyken

Associate Scientist