Paper detail

Are Debris Disks and Massive Planets Correlated?

Using data from the Spitzer Space Telescope Legacy Science Program ``Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems&#39;&#39; (FEPS), we have searched for debris disks around 9 FGK stars (2-10 Gyr), known from radial velocity (RV) studies to have one or more massive planets. Only one of the sources, HD 38529, has excess emission above the stellar photosphere; at 70 micron the signal-to-noise ratio in the excess is 4.7 while at wavelengths < 30 micron there is no evidence of excess. The remaining sources show no excesses at any Spitzer wavelengths. Applying survival tests to the FEPS sample and the results for the FGK survey published in Bryden et al. (2006), we do not find a significant correlation between the frequency and properties of debris disks and the presence of close-in planets. We discuss possible reasons for the lack of a correlation.