2009ApJ...700.1647M

Fomalhaut and ε Eridani are two young, nearby stars that possess extended debris disks whose structures suggest the presence of perturbing planetary objects. With its high sensitivity and stable point-spread function, Spitzer/Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) is uniquely capable of detecting cool, Jupiter-like planetary companions whose peak emission is predicted to occur near 4.5 µm. We report on deep IRAC imaging of these two stars, taken at 3.6 and 4.5 µm using subarray mode and in all four channels in wider-field full array mode. Observations acquired at two different telescope roll angles allowed faint surrounding objects to be separated from the stellar diffraction pattern. No companion candidates were detected at the reported position of Fomalhaut b with 3σ model-dependent mass upper limits of 3M_J(for an age of 200 Myr). Around ε Eridani, we instead set a limit of 4 and ≲1M_J(1 Gyr model age) at the inner and outer edge of the submillimeter debris ring, respectively. These results are consistent with non-detections in recent near-infrared imaging searches, and set the strongest limits to date on the presence of planets outside ε Eridani submillimeter ring.