Seven published velocities of BD+05 4868 A allow a circular companion with 20 Jupiter masses at 350 days

We test which circular companion orbits seven published radial velocities of BD+05 4868 A can exclude. The measurements span 13.975 days. At each specified period, we fit one sine coefficient, one cosine coefficient, and one constant. Independent normal errors with the published standard deviations give an exact 95% confidence region for the two coefficients. We project this region to an upper amplitude bound. We use a stellar mass of 0.70 solar masses and an orbital inclination of 90 degrees. At 90 days, the upper mass bound is 1.071 Jupiter masses. At 350 days, it is 25.48 Jupiter masses. A model with 20 Jupiter masses at 350 days has chi-square 7.849. The constant model has chi-square 9.041. This example lies inside the 95% coefficient region. Its allowed phases occupy 0.650% of an orbit. At 350 days, a model with 13 Jupiter masses also agrees with the measurements. Its chi-square increase is less than one. Thus, these seven values alone do not give a phase independent exclusion of all such massive companions. The general phase effect is known from prior work. This contribution gives a numerical confidence map and explicit orbit models for this data table. It does not detect a companion. The results assume one additional circular signal, a free constant, and no added stellar noise. Other astronomical data are not tested. The package contains the measured values, source checks, code, confidence tables, figures, and simulation checks.

BD+05 4868 A · radial velocity · circular companion · orbital phase · confidence region · mass limit · public data audit