The TRENDS High-Contrast Imaging Survey. IV. The Occurrence Rate of Giant Planets around M-Dwarfs

Understand

Doppler-based planet surveys have discovered numerous giant planets but are incomplete beyond several AU.

• At larger star-planet separations, direct planet detection through high-contrast imaging has proven successful, but this technique is sensitive only to young planets and characterization relies upon theoretical evolution models.
• Here we demonstrate that radial velocity measurements and high-contrast imaging can be combined to overcome these issues.
• The presence of widely separated companions can be deduced by identifying an acceleration (long-term trend) in the radial velocity of a star.