Detection Limits and Planet Occurrence Rate in the CARMENES Sample

Abstract

The CARMENES survey is monitoring more than 300 M-dwarf stars looking for exoplanets. Besides planet discoveries, the data it produces can also be used to estimate the statistics of planets around late-type stars. In this work, we aim at estimating the detection limits of the CARMENES survey, and the occurrence rate of Jupiter- and Neptune-like planets around M-dwarf stars. For this purpose, we use a sample with 324 stars for which values for the radial velocity as a function of time have been measured. We remove the signals produced by planets or intrinsic stellar variability to analyse the instrumental noise. In this noise we look for the minimum planetary mass that could be discovered, obtaining a lower detection limit. With this result we estimate the occurrence rate of M-dwarf planets at different minimum mass and orbital period ranges. For Jupiter- and Neptune-like planets we obtained an occurrence rate of ~ 1%.