The Pan-Pacific Planet Search. VI. Giant Planets Orbiting HD 86950 and HD 222076

We report the detection of two new planets orbiting the K giants HD 86950 and HD 222076, based on precise radial velocities obtained with three instruments: AAT/UCLES, FEROS, and CHIRON. HD 86950b has a period of 1270 ± 57 days at a=2.72+/- 0.08 au, and m sin I=3.6+/- 0.7 {M}_{Jup}. HD 222076b has P=871+/- 19 days at a=1.83+/- 0.03 au, and m sin I=1.56+/- 0.11 {M}_{Jup}. These two giant planets are typical of the population of planets known to orbit evolved stars. In addition, we find a high-amplitude periodic velocity signal (K∼ 50 m s^-1) in HD 29399 and show that it is due to stellar variability rather than Keplerian reflex motion. We also investigate the relation between planet occurrence and host-star metallicity for the 164-star Pan-Pacific Planet Search (PPPS) sample of evolved stars. In spite of the small sample of PPPS detections, we confirm the trend of increasing planet occurrence as a function of metallicity found by other studies of planets orbiting evolved stars.