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Limits to Tertiary Astrometric Companions in Binary Systems

Matthew W. Muterspaugh, Benjamin F. Lane, S. R. Kulkarni, B. F. Burke, M. M. Colavita, M. Shao

astro-pharXiv:astro-ph/0608640

Abstract

The Palomar High-precision Astrometric Search for Exoplanet Systems (PHASES) has monitored 37 sub-arcsecond binary systems to determine whether their Keplerian orbits are perturbed by faint astrometric companions to either star. Software has been developed to evaluate the regions in a companion mass-period phase space in which the PHASES observations can exclude the possibility of face-on orbit perturbations. We present results for 8 systems for which astrometric companions with masses as small as those of giant planets can be excluded.

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