2007ApJ...670.1367L

We present the results of the Gemini Deep Planet Survey, a near-infrared adaptive optics search for giant planets and brown dwarfs around 85 nearby young stars. The observations were obtained with the Altair adaptive optics system at the Gemini North telescope, and angular differential imaging was used to suppress the speckle noise of the central star. Typically, the observations are sensitive to angular separations beyond 0.5" with 5 σ contrast sensitivities in magnitude difference at 1.6 µm of 9.5 at 0.5", 12.9 at 1", 15.0 at 2", and 16.5 at 5". These sensitivities are sufficient to detect planets more massive than 2 M_J with a projected separation in the range 40-200 AU around a typical target. Second-epoch observations of 48 stars with candidates (out of 54) have confirmed that all candidates are unrelated background stars. A detailed statistical analysis of the survey results is presented. Assuming a planet mass distribution dn/dm∝m^–1.2 and a semimajor-axis distribution dn/da∝a^–1, the 95% credible upper limits on the fraction of stars with at least one planet of mass 0.5-13 M_J are 0.28 for the range 10-25 AU, 0.13 for 25-50 AU, and 0.093 for 50-250 AU; this result is weakly dependent on the semimajor-axis distribution power-law index. The 95% credible interval for the fraction of stars with at least one brown dwarf companion having a semimajor axis in the range 25-250 AU is 0.019^+0.083_–0.015, irrespective of any assumption on the mass and semimajor-axis distributions. The observations made as part of this survey have resolved the stars HD 14802, HD 166181, and HD 213845 into binaries for the first time.