The Occurrence of Giant Planets Orbiting B Stars

While giant planet formation is expected to be efficient around intermediate-mass stars and peak at M_star = 3 M_Sun (i.e., B stars), the fast rotation, pulsations, and large radii of these extreme stars render even giant planets invisible to the Doppler and transit techniques. While direct imaging could in principle discover giant planets orbiting such stars, B stars are rare and only 18 are found within 100 pc of the Sun. To overcome these issues, we have used Gaia data to isolate a sample of hot, massive white dwarfs with combined main sequence plus cooling ages less than 1 Gyr that were B stars on the main sequence. We then used archival Spitzer photometry to search for the signature of unresolved self-luminous young giant planets in these systems. We thereby report the first giant planet occurrence estimate for stars with zero-age main sequence masses greater than 4 M_Sun, η_{giant planet} = 0.08_-0.05^+0.09. This value is consistent with the occurrence of giant planets orbiting solar-mass stars with similar separations, so we find no evidence for an increased efficiency of giant planet formation around intermediate mass stars.