Gemini Planet Imager Research Articles

Campaign Scheduling and Analysis for the Gemini Planet Imager

AbstractThe Gemini Planet Image (GPI) is a new, high-contrast, exoplanet-imaging, facility instrument for the Gemini South observatory, scheduled to begin science observations in 2014. The GPI Exoplanet Survey (GPIES) has been awarded 890 hours to image and spectrally and polarimetrically characterize young, giant planets within 100 parsecs of the solar system. In preparation for the survey, we have developed a framework for simulating GPI observations and generating end-to-end survey simulations. We present new extensions to this modeling effort and our latest results. We discuss systematic methods for scheduling the survey to ensure that the population of discovered planets is useful in constraining formation models and possibly distinguishing between gravitational collapse and core accretion as the primary formation mechanism.

TLOCI: A Fully Loaded Speckle Killing Machine

AbstractA new high-contrast imaging subtraction algorithm (TLOCI) is presented to maximize a planet signal-to-noise ratio. The technique uses an input spectrum and template PSFs to optimize the reference image coefficient determination to minimize the flux contamination via self-subtraction (thus maximizing its throughput wavelength per wavelength) of any planet that have a similar spectrum to the template spectrum in the image, while trying, at the same time, to maximize the speckle noise subtraction. The optimization is performed by a correlation matrix conditioning. Using laboratory Gemini Planet Imager data, the new algorithm is shown to be superior to the simple/double difference, polynomial fit and original LOCI algorithm.

Computer vision applications for coronagraphic optical alignment and image processing

Modern coronagraphic systems require very precise alignment between optical components and can benefit greatly from automated image processing. We discuss three techniques commonly employed in the fields of computer vision and image analysis as applied to the Gemini Planet Imager, a new facility instrument for the Gemini South Observatory. We describe how feature extraction and clustering methods can be used to aid in automated system alignment tasks, and also present a search algorithm for finding regular features in science images used for calibration and data processing. Along with discussions of each technique, we present our specific implementation and show results of each one in operation.

Production of phase screens for simulation of atmospheric turbulence

The ability to simulate atmospheric turbulence in the laboratory is a crucial part of testing and developing astronomical adaptive optics (AO) technology. We report on the development of a technique for creating phase plates that involves the strategic application of clear acrylic paint onto a transparent substrate. Results of interferometric characterization of these plates are described and compared to Kolmogorov statistics. The range of r(0) (Fried's parameter) achieved thus far is 0.2-1.2 mm, with a Kolmogorov power law. These phase plates have been successfully used by the Laboratory for Adaptive Optics at University of California, Santa Cruz in the Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics testbed as part of the Visible Light Laser Guidestar Experiments (Villages) calibration system and during integration and testing of the Gemini Planet Imager. Measurements of the turbulence from the plate in Villages are compared to the sky, which shows the plate produces good representative atmospheric aberrations. We are now distributing the plates to other members of the AO community.

On Advanced Estimation Techniques for Exoplanet Detection and Characterization Using Ground-based Coronagraphs.

The direct imaging of planets around nearby stars is exceedingly difficult. Only about 14 exoplanets have been imaged to date that have masses less than 13 times that of Jupiter. The next generation of planet-finding coronagraphs, including VLT-SPHERE, the Gemini Planet Imager, Palomar P1640, and Subaru HiCIAO have predicted contrast performance of roughly a thousand times less than would be needed to detect Earth-like planets. In this paper we review the state of the art in exoplanet imaging, most notably the method of Locally Optimized Combination of Images (LOCI), and we investigate the potential of improving the detectability of faint exoplanets through the use of advanced statistical methods based on the concepts of the ideal observer and the Hotelling observer. We propose a formal comparison of techniques using a blind data challenge with an evaluation of performance using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) and Localization ROC (LROC) curves. We place particular emphasis on the understanding and modeling of realistic sources of measurement noise in ground-based AO-corrected coronagraphs. The work reported in this paper is the result of interactions between the co-authors during a week-long workshop on exoplanet imaging that was held in Squaw Valley, California, in March of 2012.

THE USE OF SPATIAL FILTERING WITH APERTURE MASKING INTERFEROMETRY AND ADAPTIVE OPTICS

Non-redundant aperture masking interferometry with adaptive optics (AO) is a powerful technique for high contrast at the diffraction limit with high-precision astrometry and photometry. A limitation to the achievable contrast can be attributed to spatial fluctuations of the wavefront—those within a sub-aperture and across sub-apertures—and temporal fluctuations within a single exposure. Spatial filtering addresses spatial fluctuations within a sub-aperture. An optimized pinhole in the focal place preceding the aperture mask is one approach for reducing the variation of the wavefront within a sub-aperture. Similarly, a weak spatial filtering effect is shown to be provided by post-processing the images with an apodized window function, typically used to minimize detector read noise and contamination from wide-separated sources. We explore the effects of spatial filtering through calculation, simulation, and observational tests conducted with a pinhole and aperture mask in the PHARO instrument at the Hale 200 �� Telescope at Palomar Observatory. We find that a pinhole decreases stochastic closure phase errors and calibration errors, but that tight restrictions are placed onto the alignment of binary targets within the pinhole. We propose an observation strategy to relax these restrictions. If implemented, the pinhole could potentially yield an increase in achievable contrast by up to 10%‐25% in H and Ks bands, and more at very high Strehl (80%). We also conclude that correcting low-order wavefront modes within the sub-apertures will be key for reaching high contrasts with extreme-AO systems such as the Gemini Planet Imager and PALM3K to search for planets.

Morphology of the very inclined debris disk around HD 32297

Direct imaging of circumstellar disks at high angular resolution is mandatory to provide morphological information that bring constraints on their properties, in particular the spatial distribution of dust. New techniques combining observing strategy and data processing now allow very high contrast imaging with 8-m class ground-based telescopes (10^-4 to 10^-5 at ~1") and complement space telescopes while improving angular resolution at near infrared wavelengths. We carried out a program at the VLT with NACO to image known debris disks with higher angular resolution in the near IR than ever before in order to study morphological properties and ultimately to detect signpost of planets. The observing method makes use of advanced techniques: Adaptive Optics, Coronagraphy and Differential Imaging, a combination designed to directly image exoplanets with the upcoming generation of "planet finders" like GPI (Gemini Planet Imager) and SPHERE (Spectro-Polarimetric High contrast Exoplanet REsearch). Applied to extended objects like circumstellar disks, the method is still successful but produces significant biases in terms of photometry and morphology. We developed a new model-matching procedure to correct for these biases and hence to bring constraints on the morphology of debris disks. From our program, we present new images of the disk around the star HD 32297 obtained in the H (1.6mic) and Ks (2.2mic) bands with an unprecedented angular resolution (~65 mas). The images show an inclined thin disk detected at separations larger than 0.5-0.6". The modeling stage confirms a very high inclination (i=88{\deg}) and the presence of an inner cavity inside r_0~110AU. We also found that the spine (line of maximum intensity along the midplane) of the disk is curved and we attributed this feature to a large anisotropic scattering factor (g~0.5, valid for an non-edge on disk). Abridged ...

TESTING THE APODIZED PUPIL LYOT CORONAGRAPH ON THE LABORATORY FOR ADAPTIVE OPTICS EXTREME ADAPTIVE OPTICS TESTBED

We present testbed results of the Apodized Pupil Lyot Coronagraph (APLC) at the Laboratory for Adaptive Optics (LAO). These results are part of the validation and tests of the coronagraph and of the Extreme Adaptive Optics (ExAO) for the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI). The apodizer component is manufactured with a halftone technique using black chrome microdots on glass. Testing this APLC (like any other coronagraph) requires extremely good wavefront correction, which is obtained to the 1 nm rms level using the microelectricalmechanical systems (MEMS) technology, on the ExAO visible testbed of the LAO at the University of Santa Cruz. We used an APLC coronagraph without central obstruction, both with a reference super-polished flat mirror and with the MEMS to obtain one of the first images of a dark zone in a coronagraphic image with classical adaptive optics using a MEMS deformable mirror (without involving dark hole algorithms). This was done as a complementary test to the GPI coronagraph testbed at American Museum of Natural History, which studied the coronagraph itself without wavefront correction. Because we needed a full aperture, the coronagraph design is very different from the GPI design. We also tested a coronagraph with central obstruction similar to thatmore » of GPI. We investigated the performance of the APLC coronagraph and more particularly the effect of the apodizer profile accuracy on the contrast. Finally, we compared the resulting contrast to predictions made with a wavefront propagation model of the testbed to understand the effects of phase and amplitude errors on the final contrast.« less

Adaptive Optics Observations of Exoplanets, Brown Dwarfs, and Binary Stars

AbstractThe current direct observations of brown dwarfs and exoplanets have been obtained using instruments not specifically designed for overcoming the large contrast ratio between the host star and any wide-separation faint companions. However, we are about to witness the birth of several new dedicated observing platforms specifically geared towards high contrast imaging of these objects. The Gemini Planet Imager, VLT-SPHERE, Subaru HiCIAO, and Project 1640 at the Palomar 5m telescope will return images of numerous exoplanets and brown dwarfs over hundreds of observing nights in the next five years. Along with diffraction-limited coronagraphs and high-order adaptive optics, these instruments also will return spectral and polarimetric information on any discovered targets, giving clues to their atmospheric compositions and characteristics. Such spectral characterization will be key to forming a detailed theory of comparative exoplanetary science which will be widely applicable to both exoplanets and brown dwarfs. Further, the prevalence of aperture masking interferometry in the field of high contrast imaging is also allowing observers to sense massive, young planets at solar system scales (~3–30 AU)— separations out of reach to conventional direct imaging techniques. Such observations can provide snapshots at the earliest phases of planet formation—information essential for constraining formation mechanisms as well as evolutionary models of planetary mass companions. As a demonstration of the power of this technique, I briefly review recent aperture masking observations of the HR 8799 system. Moreover, all of the aforementioned techniques are already extremely adept at detecting low-mass stellar companions to their target stars, and I present some recent highlights.

Experimental Design for the Gemini Planet Imager

ABSTRACTThe Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is a high-performance adaptive optics system being designed and built for the Gemini Observatory. GPI is optimized for high-contrast imaging, combining precise and accurate wavefront control, diffraction suppression, and a speckle-suppressing science camera with integral field and polarimetry capabilities. The primary science goal for GPI is the direct detection and characterization of young, Jovian-mass exoplanets. For plausible assumptions about the distribution of gas giant properties at large semimajor axes, GPI will be capable of detecting more than 10% of gas giants more massive than 0.5 MJ around stars younger than 100 Myr and nearer than 75 pc. For systems younger than 1 Gyr, gas giants more massive than 8 MJ and with semimajor axes greater than 15 AU are detected with completeness greater than 50%. A survey targeting young stars in the solar neighborhood will help determine the formation mechanism of gas giant planets by studying them at ages where planet brightness depends upon formation mechanism. Such a survey will also be sensitive to planets at semimajor axes, comparable with the gas giants in our own solar system. In the simple, and idealized, situation in which planets formed by either the “hot-start” model of Burrows et al. or the core accretion model of Marley et al., a few tens of detected planets are sufficient to distinguish how planets form.

APODIZED PUPIL LYOT CORONAGRAPHS FOR ARBITRARY APERTURES. III. QUASI-ACHROMATIC SOLUTIONS

Direct imaging and spectroscopy of young giant planets from the ground requires broadband starlight suppression with coronagraphy. It is important to minimize the coronagraph chromatic sensitivity to help remove residual speckles through post-processing of images at multiple wavelengths. The coronagraph must also be able to mitigate the effects of ground-based telescopes with central obstruction. We present new properties of the Apodized Pupil Lyot Coronagraph (APLC) that enable quasi-achromatic starlight suppression over a broad bandpass (20%) and with central obstructions. We discuss the existence of these quasi-achromatic solutions using the properties of the generalized prolate spheroidal functions, which are used to define the apodizer profile. We discuss a broadband optimization method and illustrate its parameter space in terms of inner working angle and contrast. These new APLC solutions are implemented in the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI), a new facility instrument to detect and characterize young giant planets and disks, which will be commissioned in 2011. The coronagraph design delivers a contrast better than 10–7 beyond a separation of 0.2 arcsec in the presence of Gemini's central obstruction over a 20% bandpass. The science camera is an integral field spectrograph observing in one of the Y, J, or H, or in about two-thirds of the K bandpass, at a single time. Similar solutions have also been used for the Palomar 1640 coronagraphic integral field spectrograph.

Kalman filtering to suppress spurious signals in adaptive optics control

In many scenarios, an adaptive optics (AO) control system operates in the presence of temporally non-white noise. We use a Kalman filter with a state space formulation that allows suppression of this colored noise, hence improving residual error over the case where the noise is assumed to be white. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this new filter in the case of the estimated Gemini Planet Imager tip-tilt environment, where there are both common-path and non-common-path vibrations. We discuss how this same framework can also be used to suppress spatial aliasing during predictive wavefront control assuming frozen flow in a low-order AO system without a spatially filtered wavefront sensor, and present experimental measurements from Altair that clearly reveal these aliased components.

DETECTABILITY OF EXOPLANETS IN THE β PIC MOVING GROUP WITH THE GEMINI PLANET IMAGER

We model the detectability of exoplanets around stars in the Beta Pic Moving Group (BPMG) using the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI), a coronagraphic instrument designed to detect companions by imaging. Members of the BPMG are considered promising targets for exoplanet searches because of their youth (~12 MY) and proximity (median distance ~35 pc). We wrote a modeling procedure to generate hypothetical companions of given mass, age, eccentricity, and semi-major axis, and place them around BPMG members that fall within the V-band range of the GPI. We count as possible detections companions lying within the GPI's field of view and H-band fluxes that have a host-companion flux ratio placing them within its sensitivity. The fraction of companions that could be detected depends on their brightness at 12 Myr, and hence formation mechanism, and on their distribution of semi-major axes. We used brightness models for formation by disk instability and core-accretion. We considered the two extreme cases of the semi-major axis distribution - the log-normal distribution of the nearby F and G type stars and a power-law distribution indicated by the exoplanets detected by the radial velocity technique. We find that the GPI could detect exoplanets of all the F and G spectral type stars in the BPMG sample with a probability that depends on the brightness model and semi-major axis distribution. At spectral type K to M1, exoplanet detectability depends on brightness and hence distance of the host star. GPI will be able to detect the companions of M stars later than M1 only if they are closer than 10 pc. Of the four A stars in BPMG sample, only one has V-band brightness in the range of GPI; the others are too bright.

Amplitude variations on a MEMS-based extreme adaptive optics coronagraph testbed

High-contrast imaging techniques such as coronagraphy are expected to play an important role in the imaging of extrasolar planets. Instruments like the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) or the Spectro-Polar-Imetric High-Contrast Exoplanet Research (SPHERE) require high-dynamic range, achieved using coronagraphs to block light coming from the parent star. An extremely good adaptive optics (AO) system is required to reduce dynamic atmospheric wavefront errors to 50-100 nm rms. Systematic wavefront errors must also be controlled at the nanometer-equivalent level to remove persistent speckle artifacts. While precision AO systems can control wavefront phase errors at this level, systematic amplitude or intensity errors can also produce speckle artifacts and are uncontrolled by traditional AO phase conjugation. On the Laboratory for Adaptive Optics (LAO) extreme AO testbed, we observed a discrepancy between the coronagraphic image profile and the profile predicted by simple simulations using the measured optical phase, which could potentially be explained by amplitude variations. Measurements showed up to 7% rms intensity changes across the microelectrical mechanical (MEM) plane of the system. We identified potential sources of amplitude variation and compared them to a Fresnel model of the system. One potential concern was the surface structure of the MEM system's (MEMS) deformable mirror, but analysis shows that it induces at most 2% rms variation. The bulk of the observed intensity variation is due to nonuniform illumination of the system by the input single-mode fiber and phase errors mixing into amplitude at the nonpupil-plane due to the Talbot effect, coupled with residual astigmatism in the pupil imager.

The effect of a small heat source on PSF stability for high-contrast imaging

High-contrast adaptive optics systems, such as those needed to image extrasolar planets, are known to require excellent wavefront control and diffraction suppression. The Laboratory for Adaptive Optics at UC Santa Cruz is investigating limits to high-contrast imaging in support of the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI). In this paper we examine the effect of heat sources in the testbed on point-spread-function (PSF) stability. Introducing a heat source primarily introduces image motion. The GPI error budget requires image motion to be less than 0.1 lambda /D. Systematic motion of the PSF core is typically 0.01 lambda /D rms and with a 20 watt heat source introduced near the pupil plane image motion is increased to 0.02 lambda /D rms. Therefore, even a heat source as large as 20 watts near the pupil plane causes errors below the GPI requirement, but the combination of the heat source and additional air turbulence on the system introduced by changes to the enclosure or the fan of other components can produce significantly more motion. Heat also can affect the speckle pattern in the high-contrast region, but in the final instrument other sources of error should be more significant.

SHAPED PUPIL DESIGN FOR THE GEMINI PLANET IMAGER

The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is an instrument designed for the Gemini South telescope to image young Jupiter-mass planets in the infrared. To achieve the high contrast needed for this, it employs an apodized pupil Lyot coronagraph (APLC) to remove most of the starlight. Current designs use a partially-transmitting apodizer in the pupil; we examine the use of binary apodizations in the form of starshaped shaped pupils, and present a design that could achieve comparable performance, along with a series of design guidelines for creating shaped pupil versions of APLCs in other systems.

Stroke saturation on a MEMS deformable mirror for woofer-tweeter adaptive optics

High-contrast imaging of extrasolar planet candidates around a main-sequence star has recently been realized from the ground using current adaptive optics (AO) systems. Advancing such observations will be a task for the Gemini Planet Imager, an upcoming "extreme" AO instrument. High-order "tweeter" and low-order "woofer" deformable mirrors (DMs) will supply a >90%-Strehl correction, a specialized coronagraph will suppress the stellar flux, and any planets can then be imaged in the "dark hole" region. Residual wavefront error scatters light into the DM-controlled dark hole, making planets difficult to image above the noise. It is crucial in this regard that the high-density tweeter, a micro-electrical mechanical systems (MEMS) DM, have sufficient stroke to deform to the shapes required by atmospheric turbulence. Laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the rate and circumstance of saturation, i.e. stroke insufficiency. A 1024-actuator 1.5-microm-stroke MEMS device was empirically tested with software Kolmogorov-turbulence screens of r(0) =10-15 cm. The MEMS when solitary suffered saturation approximately 4% of the time. Simulating a woofer DM with approximately 5-10 actuators across a 5-m primary mitigated MEMS saturation occurrence to a fraction of a percent. While no adjacent actuators were saturated at opposing positions, mid-to-high-spatial-frequency stroke did saturate more frequently than expected, implying that correlations through the influence functions are important. Analytical models underpredict the stroke requirements, so empirical studies are important.

Adaptive optics for direct detection of extrasolar planets: the Gemini Planet Imager

The direct detection of photons emitted or reflected by extrasolar planets, spatially resolved from their parent star, is a major frontier in the study of other solar systems. Direct detection will provide statistical information on planets in 5–50 AU orbits, inaccessible to current Doppler searches, and allow spectral characterization of radius, temperature, surface gravity, and perhaps composition. Achieving this will require new, dedicated, high-contrast instruments. One such system under construction is the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI). This combines a high-order/high-speed adaptive optics system to control wavefront errors from the Earth's atmosphere, an advanced coronagraph to block diffraction, ultrasmooth optics, a precision infrared interferometer to measure and correct systematic errors, and a integral field spectrograph/polarimeter to image and characterize target planetary systems. We predict that GPI will be able to detect planets with brightness less than 10 −7 of their parent star, sufficient to observe warm self-luminous planets around a large population of targets. To cite this article: B. Macintosh et al., C. R. Physique 8 (2007).

Apodized Pupil Lyot Coronagraphs: Concepts and application to the Gemini Planet Imager

This paper summarizes the general theory and properties for Apodized Pupil Lyot Coronagraphs which consist of a classical hard-edged Lyot coronagraph with an upstream pupil apodization. The ideal apodization function can be determined from an integral eigenvalue problem which solutions are prolate spheroidal functions. Solutions exist for any geometrty, including rectangular, circular, or elliptical. Formal solutions can be extended to the case of arbitrary apertures, using generalized prolate spheroidal functions for centrally obstructed apertures, spiders, or segmented telescopes. The properties of these coronagraphs enable the possibility of multiple stage coronagraphy and achromatization. The new instrument Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) will include such a coronagraph.