DISCOVERY OF A LOW-MASS COMPANION TO A METAL-RICH F STAR WITH THE MARVELS PILOT PROJECT

We report the discovery of a low-mass companion orbiting the metal-rich, main sequence F star TYC 2949-00557-1 during the Multi-object APO Radial Velocity Exoplanet Large-area Survey (MARVELS) pilot project. The host star has an effective temperature T-eff = 6135 +/- 40 K, logg = 4.4 +/- 0.1, and [Fe/H] = 0.32 +/- 0.01, indicating a mass of M = 1.25 +/- 0.09M(circle dot) and R = 1.15 +/- 0.15R(circle dot). The companion has an orbital period of 5.69449 +/- 0.00023 days and straddles the hydrogen burning limit with a minimum mass of 64 M-J, and thus may be an example of the rare class of brown dwarfs orbiting at distances comparable to those of Hot Jupiters. We present relative photometry that demonstrates that the host star is photometrically stable at the few millimagnitude level on time scales of hours to years, and rules out transits for a companion of radius less than or similar to 0.8R(J) at the 95% confidence level. Tidal analysis of the system suggests that the star and companion are likely in a double synchronous state where both rotational and orbital synchronization have been achieved. This is the first low-mass companion detected with a multi-object, dispersed, fixed-delay interferometer.