Atmospheric Retrieval of L Dwarfs: Benchmarking Results and Characterizing the Young Planetary Mass Companion HD 106906 b in the Near-Infrared
Authors: Arthur D. Adams, Michael R. Meyer, Alex R. Howe, Ben Burningham, Sebastian Daemgen, Jonathan Fortney, Mike Line, Mark Marley, Sascha P. Quanz, Kamen Todorov
Abstract
We present model constraints on the atmospheric structure of HD 106906 b, a planetary-mass companion orbiting at a ~700 AU projected separation around a 15 Myr-old stellar binary, using the APOLLO retrieval code on spectral data spanning 1.1-2.5 $\mu$m. C/O ratios can provide evidence for companion formation pathways, as such pathways are ambiguous both at wide separations and at star-to-companion mass ratios in the overlap between the distributions of planets and brown dwarfs. We benchmark our code against an existing retrieval of the field L dwarf 2M2224-0158, returning a C/O ratio consistent with previous fits to the same JHKs data, but disagreeing in the thermal structure, cloud properties, and atmospheric scale height. For HD 106906 b, we retrieve C/O $=0.53^{+0.15}_{-0.25}$, consistent with the C/O ratios expected for HD 106906's stellar association and therefore consistent with a stellar-like formation for the companion. We find abundances of H$_2$O and CO near chemical equilibrium values for a solar metallicity, but a surface gravity lower than expected, as well as a thermal profile with sharp transitions in the temperature gradient. Despite high signal-to-noise and spectral resolution, more accurate constraints necessitate data across a broader wavelength range. This work serves as preparation for subsequent retrievals in the era of JWST, as JWST's spectral range provides a promising opportunity to resolve difficulties in fitting low-gravity L dwarfs, and also underscores the need for simultaneous comparative retrievals on L dwarf companions with multiple retrieval codes.
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High signal-to-noise spectral characterization of HD 106906 b analyzes its 1.1–2.5 μm spectrum to constrain the same young companion’s atmospheric properties.
Abstract
We spectroscopically characterize the atmosphere of HD 106906b, a young low-mass companion near the deuterium burning limit. The wide separation from its host star of 7.1" makes it an ideal candidate for high S/N and high-resolution spectroscopy. We aim to derive new constraints on the spectral type, effective temperature, and luminosity of HD106906b and also to provide a high S/N template spectrum for future characterization of extrasolar planets. We obtained 1.1-2.5 $\mu$m integral field spectroscopy with the VLT/SINFONI instrument with a spectral resolution of R~2000-4000. New estimates of the parameters of HD 106906b are derived by analyzing spectral features, comparing the extracted spe…
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Abstract
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Abstract
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Abstract
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Abstract
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Orbital and spectral analysis of the benchmark brown dwarf HD 4747BS. Peretti, D. Ségransan, B. Lavie et al. · 2018 · Astronomy & Astrophysics · cited 22 times · Not summarized yet
Orbital and spectral analysis of HD 4747B combines orbital and spectral observations to study a directly imaged brown dwarf companion.
Abstract
Context. The study of high-contrast imaged brown dwarfs and exoplanets depends strongly on evolutionary models. To estimate the mass of a directly imaged substellar object, its extracted photometry or spectrum is used and adjusted with model spectra together with the estimated age of the system. These models still need to be properly tested and constrained. HD 4747B is a brown dwarf close to the H burning mass limit, orbiting a nearby (d = 19.25 ± 0.58 pc), solar-type star (G9V); it has been observed with the radial velocity method for over almost two decades. Its companion was also recently detected by direct imaging, allowing a complete study of this particular object. Aims. We aim to full…
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Abstract
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Abstract
HD95086 (A8V, 17Myr) hosts a rare planetary system for which a multi-belt debris disk and a giant planet of 4-5MJup have been directly imaged. Our study aims to characterize the physical and orbital properties of HD95086b, search for additional planets at short and wide orbits and image the cold outer debris belt in scattered light. We used HARPS at the ESO 3.6m telescope to monitor the radial velocity of HD95086 over 2 years and investigate the existence of giant planets at less than 3au orbital distance. With the IRDIS dual-band imager and the IFS integral field spectrograph of SPHERE at VLT, we imaged the faint circumstellar environment beyond 10au at six epochs between 2015 and 2017. We …
Prior work it builds on
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Uniform Atmospheric Retrieval Analysis of Ultracool Dwarfs. II. Properties of 11 T dwarfsM. Line, M. Marley, Michael C. Liu et al. · 2016 · The Astrophysical Journal · cited 106 times · Not summarized yet
Uniform Atmospheric Retrieval Analysis applies a retrieval tool to near-infrared spectra to constrain molecular abundances, gravity, thermal structure, and clouds in T dwarfs.
Abstract
Brown dwarf spectra are rich in information revealing of the chemical and physical processes operating in their atmospheres. We apply a recently developed atmospheric retrieval tool to an ensemble of late-T dwarf (600–800 K) near-infrared (1–2.5 μm) spectra. With these spectra we are able to directly constrain the molecular abundances for the first time of H2O, CH4, CO, CO2, NH3, H2S, and Na+K, surface gravity, effective temperature, thermal structure, photometric radius, and cloud optical depths. We find that ammonia, water, methane, and the alkali metals are present and that their abundances are well constrained in all 11 objects. We find no significant trend in the water, methane, or ammo…
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Cloud Atlas: High-precision HST/WFC3/IR Time-resolved Observations of Directly Imaged Exoplanet HD 106906bYi-Fan Zhou, D. Apai, L. Bedin et al. · 2020 · Astronomical Journal · cited 18 times · Not summarized yet
Cloud Atlas analyzes time-resolved Hubble observations of HD 106906b to measure its near-infrared variability.
Abstract
HD 106906b is an , ∼15 Myr old directly imaged exoplanet orbiting at an extremely large distance from its host star. The wide separation (7.″11) between HD 106906b and its host star greatly reduces the difficulty in direct-imaging observations, making it one of the most favorable directly imaged exoplanets for detailed characterization. In this paper, we present HST/WFC3/IR time-resolved observations of HD 106906b in the F127M, F139M, and F153M bands. We have achieved ∼1% precision in the lightcurves in all three bands. The F127M lightcurve demonstrates marginally detectable (2.7σ significance) variability with a best-fitting period of 4 hr, while the lightcurves in the other two bands are c…
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A library of near-infrared integral field spectra presents young M–L dwarf observations and uses them to test atmospheric models.
Abstract
We present a library of near-infrared (1.1-2.45 microns) medium-resolution (R~1500-2000) integral field spectra of 15 young M6-L0 dwarfs, composed of companions with known ages and of isolated objects. We use it to (re)derive the NIR spectral types, luminosities and physical parameters of the targets, and to test (BT-SETTL, DRIFT-PHOENIX) atmospheric models. We derive infrared spectral types L0+-1, L0+-1, M9.5+-0.5, M9.5+-0.5, M9.25+-0.25, M8+0.5-0.75, and M8.5+-0.5 for AB Pic b, Cha J110913-773444, USco CTIO 108B, GSC 08047-00232 B, DH Tau B, CT Cha b, and HR7329B, respectively. BT-SETTL and DRIFT-PHOENIX models yield close Teff and log g estimates for each sources. The models seem to evide…
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Retrieving the C and O Abundances of HR 7672 AB: A Solar-type Primary Star with a Benchmark Brown DwarfJi Wang, Jared R. Kolecki, J. Ruffio et al. · 2022 · Astronomical Journal · cited 41 times · Not summarized yet
Retrieving the C and O Abundances of HR 7672 AB uses atmospheric retrieval to infer elemental abundances and C/O for a benchmark brown dwarf.
Abstract
A benchmark brown dwarf (BD) is a BD whose properties (e.g., mass and chemical composition) are precisely and independently measured. Benchmark BDs are valuable in testing theoretical evolutionary tracks, spectral synthesis, and atmospheric retrievals for substellar objects. Here, we report results of atmospheric retrieval on a synthetic spectrum and a benchmark BD, HR 7672 B, with petitRADTRANS. First, we test the retrieval framework on a synthetic PHOENIX BT-Settl spectrum with a solar composition. We show that the retrieved C and O abundances are consistent with solar values, but the retrieved C/O is overestimated by 0.13–0.18, which is about four times higher than the formal error bar. S…
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A narrow, edge-on disk resolved around HD 106906 with SPHEREA. Lagrange, M. Langlois, R. Gratton et al. · 2015 · Astronomy and Astrophysics · cited 67 times · Not summarized yet
A narrow, edge-on disk resolved around HD 106906 with SPHERE studies the circumstellar disk around the host binary of HD 106906 b.
Abstract
Context. HD 106906AB is the only young binary system so far around which a planet has been imaged and a debris disk has been shown to exist, thanks to a strong IR excess. As such, it represents a unique opportunity for studying the dynamics of young planetary systems. Aims. We aim at further investigating the close (tens of au scales) environment of the HD 106906AB system. Methods. We used the extreme adaptive-optics-fed, high-contrast imager SPHERE that has recently been installed on the VLT to observe HD 106906. Both the IRDIS imager and the Integral Field Spectrometer were used. Results. We discovered a highly inclined, ring-like disk at a distance of 65 au from the star. The disk shows a…
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