Limits on Unresolved Planetary Companions to White Dwarf Remnants of 14 Intermediate-Mass Stars
Abstract
We present Spitzer IRAC photometry of white dwarf remnants of 14 stars with M = 3-5 Msol. We do not detect mid-infrared excess around any of our targets. By demanding a 3 sigma photometric excess at 4.5 micron for unresolved companions, we rule out planetary mass companions down to 5, 7, or 10 MJ for 13 of our targets based on the Burrows et al. (2003) substellar cooling models. Combined with previous IRAC observations of white dwarf remnants of intermediate-mass stars, we rule out ≥ 10 MJ companions around 40 white dwarfs and ≥ 5 MJ companions around 10 white dwarfs.
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