ORCID Profile
0000-0002-9962-132X
Current Organisations
The University of Edinburgh
,
Universiteit van Amsterdam
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Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 05-07-2021
Abstract: The vector Apodizing Phase Plate (vAPP) is a class of pupil plane coronagraph that enables high-contrast imaging by modifying the Point Spread Function (PSF) to create a dark hole of deep flux suppression adjacent to the PSF core. Here, we recover the known brown dwarf HR 2562 B using a vAPP coronagraph, in conjunction with the Magellan Adaptive Optics (MagAO) system, at a signal-to-noise of S/N = 3.04 in the lesser studied L-band regime. The data contained a mix of field and pupil-stabilized observations, hence we explored three different processing techniques to extract the companion, including Flipped Differential Imaging (FDI), a newly devised Principal Component Analysis (PCA)-based method for vAPP data. Despite the partial field-stabilization, the companion is recovered sufficiently to measure a 3.94 $\\mu\\mathrm{ m}$ narrow-band contrast of (3.05 ± 1.00) × 10−4 ($\\Delta \\, {\\rm m}_{3.94 \\mu {\\rm m}}$ = 8.79 ± 0.36 mag). Combined with archival GPI and SPHERE observations, our atmospheric modelling indicates a spectral type at the L/T transition with mass M = 29 ± 15 MJup, consistent with literature results. However, effective temperature and surface gravity vary significantly depending on the wavebands considered (1200 ≤ Teff(K) ≤ 1700 and 4.0 ≤ log(g)(dex) ≤ 5.0), reflecting the challenges of modelling objects at the L/T transition. Observations between 2.4 and 3.2 $\\mu\\mathrm{ m}$ will be more effective in distinguishing cooler brown dwarfs due to the onset of absorption bands in this region. We explain that instrumental scattered light and wind-driven halo can be detrimental to FDI+PCA and thus must be sufficiently mitigated to use this processing technique. We thus demonstrate the potential of vAPP coronagraphs in the characterization of high-contrast substellar companions, even in sub-optimal conditions, and provide new complementary photometry of HR 2562 B.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 24-01-2023
Abstract: Clouds and other features in exoplanet and brown dwarf atmospheres cause variations in brightness as they rotate in and out of view. Ground-based instruments reach the high contrasts and small inner working angles needed to monitor these faint companions, but their small fields of view lack simultaneous photometric references to correct for non-astrophysical variations. We present a novel approach for making ground-based light curves of directly imaged companions using high-cadence differential spectrophotometric monitoring, where the simultaneous reference is provided by a double-grating 360○ vector Apodizing Phase Plate (dgvAPP360) coronagraph. The dgvAPP360 enables high-contrast companion detections without blocking the host star, allowing it to be used as a simultaneous reference. To further reduce systematic noise, we emulate exoplanet transmission spectroscopy, where the light is spectrally dispersed and then recombined into white-light flux. We do this by combining the dgvAPP360 with the infrared Arizona Lenslets for Exoplanet Spectroscopy integral field spectrograph on the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer. To demonstrate, we observed the red companion HD 1160 B (separation ∼780 mas) for one night, and detect $8.8{{\\ \\rm per\\ cent}}$ semi- litude sinusoidal variability with an ∼3.24 h period in its detrended white-light curve. We achieve the greatest precision in ground-based high-contrast imaging light curves of sub-arcsecond companions to date, reaching $3.7{{\\ \\rm per\\ cent}}$ precision per 18-min bin. In idual wavelength channels spanning 3.59–3.99 μm further show tentative evidence of increasing variability with wavelength. We find no evidence yet of a systematic noise floor hence, additional observations can further improve the precision. This is therefore a promising avenue for future work aiming to map storms or find transiting exomoons around giant exoplanets.
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for Ben Sutlieff.