An Absence of Hot Jupiter Planets in 47 Tucanae: Results of a Wide-Field Transit Search

Abstract

We present the results of a comprehensive wide field search for transiting ``Hot Jupiter&#39;&#39; planets (1d<P<16d) in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae. Motivated by the core null result of Gilliland and coworkers, this work further addresses the question of giant planet frequency in 47 Tuc by observing, from the ground, a 52&#39;x52&#39; field centered on the cluster for 30.4 nights. Hence this work is most sensitive to the uncrowded outer regions of the cluster and concentrates on 21,920 main sequence stars (~solar in mass). This work comprises the largest ground-based transit search of a globular cluster to date. Monte Carlo simulations predict that seven planets should be present in our dataset, if 47 Tuc has the same planetary frequency observed in the solar neighbourhood. A detailed search with a custom developed detection algorithm found no transit events. Being consistent with the cluster core null detection of Gilliland and coworkers, our result indicates that system metallicity is the dominant effect inhibiting Hot Jupiter formation in this environment.