Sub-m s$^{-1}$ upper limits from a deep HARPS-N radial-velocity search for planets orbiting HD 166620 and HD 144579

Abstract

Minimising the impact of stellar variability in Radial Velocity (RV) measurements is a critical challenge in achieving the 10 cm s$^{-1}$ precision needed to hunt for Earth twins. Since 2012, a dedicated programme has been underway with HARPS-N, to conduct a blind RV Rocky Planets Search (RPS) around bright stars in the Northern Hemisphere. Here we describe the results of a comprehensive search for planetary systems in two RPS targets, HD 166620 and HD 144579. Using wavelength-domain line-profile decorrelation vectors to mitigate the stellar activity and performing a deep search for planetary reflex motions using a trans-dimensional nested sampler, we found no significant planetary signals in the data sets of either of the stars. We validated the results via data-splitting and injection recovery tests. Additionally, we obtained the 95th percentile detection limits on the HARPS-N RVs. We found that the likelihood of finding a low-mass planet increases noticeably across a wide period range when the inherent stellar variability is corrected for using scalpels U-vectors. We are able to detect planet signals with $M\sin i \leq 1$ M$_\oplus$ for orbital periods shorter than 10 days. We demonstrate that with our decorrelation technique, we are able to detect signals as low as 54 cm s$^{-1}$, which brings us closer to the calibration limit of 50 cm s$^{-1}$ demonstrated by HARPS-N. Therefore, we show that we can push down towards the RV precision required to find Earth analogues using high-precision radial velocity data with novel data-analysis techniques.