arXiv subjects

Laird M. Close

Publications and source records attributed to Laird M. Close.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

HST/WFC3 H$α$ Direct-Imaging Detection of a Point-like Source in the Disk Cavity of AB Aur

Accreting protoplanets enable the direct characterization of planet formation. As part of a high-contrast imaging search for accreting planets with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3, we present H$α$ images of AB Aurigae (AB Aur), a Herbig Ae/Be star harboring a transition disk. The data were collected in two epochs of direct-imaging observations using the F656N narrow-band filter. After subtracting the point spread function of the primary star, we identify a point-like source located at a P.A. of $182.5^{\circ}\pm1.4^{\circ}$ and a separation of $600\pm22$~mas relative to the host star. The position is consistent with the recently identified protoplanet candidate AB Aur b. The source is visible in two individual epochs separated by ${\sim}50$ days and the H$α$ intensities in the two epochs agree. The H$α$ flux density is $F_ν=1.5\pm0.4$~mJy, $3.2\pm0.9$ times of the optical continuum determined by published HST/STIS photometry. In comparison to PDS 70 b and c, the H$α$ excess emission is weak. The central star is accreting and the stellar H$α$ emission has a similar line-to-continuum ratio as seen in AB Aur b. We conclude that both planetary accretion and scattered stellar light are possible sources of the H$α$ emission, and the H$α$ detection alone does not validate AB Aur b as an accreting protoplanet. Disentangling the origin of the emission will be crucial for probing planet formation in the AB Aur disk.

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arXiv2022

The Giant Magellan Telescope high contrast adaptive optics phasing testbed (p-HCAT): lab tests of segment/petal phasing with a pyramid wavefront sensor and a holographic dispersed fringe sensor (HDFS) in turbulence

The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) design consists of seven circular 8.4-m diameter mirror segments that are separated by large > 30 cm gaps, creating the possibility of fluctuations in optical path differences due to flexure, segment vibrations, wind buffeting, temperature effects, and atmospheric seeing. In order to utilize the full diffraction-limited aperture of the GMT for natural guide star adaptive optics (NGSAO) science, the seven mirror segments must be co-phased to well within a fraction of a wavelength. The current design of the GMT involves seven adaptive secondary mirrors, an off-axis dispersed fringe sensor (part of the AGWS), and a pyramid wavefront sensor (PyWFS; part of the NGWS) to measure and correct the total path length between segment pairs, but these methods have yet to be tested "end-to-end" in a lab environment. We present the design and working prototype of a "GMT High-Contrast Adaptive Optics phasing Testbed" (p-HCAT) which leverages the existing MagAO-X AO instrument to demonstrate segment phase sensing and simultaneous AO-control for GMT NGSAO science. We present the first test results of closed-loop piston control with one GMT segment using MagAO-X's PyWFS and a novel Holographic Dispersed Fringe Sensor (HDFS) with and without simulated atmospheric turbulence. We show that the PyWFS alone was unsuccessful at controlling segment piston with generated ~ 0.6 arcsec and ~ 1.2 arcsec seeing turbulence due to non-linear modal cross-talk and poor pixel sampling of the segment gaps on the PyWFS detector. We report the success of an alternate solution to control piston using the novel HDFS while controlling all other modes with the PyWFS purely as a slope sensor (piston mode removed). This "second channel" WFS method worked well to control piston to within 50 nm RMS and $\pm$ 10 $μ$m dynamic range under simulated 0.6 arcsec atmospheric seeing conditions.

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arXiv2022

The Holographic Dispersed Fringe Sensors (HDFS): phasing the Giant Magellan Telescope

The next generation of Giant Segmented Mirror Telescopes (GSMT) will have large gaps between the segments either caused by the shadow of the mechanical structure of the secondary mirror (E-ELT and TMT) or intrinsically by design (GMT). These gaps are large enough to fragment the aperture into independent segments that are separated by more than the typical Fried parameter. This creates piston and petals modes that are not well sensed by conventional wavefront sensors such as the Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor or the pyramid wavefront sensor. We propose to use a new optical device, the Holographic Dispersed Fringe Sensor (HDFS), to sense and control these petal/piston modes. The HDFS uses a single pupil-plane hologram to interfere the segments onto different spatial locations in the focal plane. Numerical simulations show that the HDFS is very efficient and that it reaches a differential piston rms smaller than 10 nm for GMT/E-ELT/TMT for guide stars up to 13th J+H band magnitude. The HDFS has also been validated in the lab with MagAO-X and HCAT, the GMT phasing testbed. The lab experiments reached 5 nm rms piston error on the Magellan telescope aperture. The HDFS also reached 50 nm rms of piston error on a segmented GMT-like aperture while the pyramid wavefront sensor was compensating simulated atmosphere under median seeing conditions. The simulations and lab results demonstrate the HDFS as an excellent piston sensor for the GMT. We find that the combination of a pyramid slope sensor with a HDFS piston sensor is a powerful architecture for the GMT.

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arXiv2022

ALMA Discovery of a Disk around the Planetary-mass Companion SR 12 c

We report an Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array 0.88 mm (Band 7) continuum detection of the accretion disk around SR 12 c, an $\sim$11 $M_{\rm Jup}$ planetary-mass companion (PMC) orbiting its host binary at 980 au. This is the first submillimeter detection of a circumplanetary disk around a wide PMC. The disk has a flux density of $127 \pm14~μ$Jy and is not resolved by the $\sim$0.1" beam, so the dust disk radius is likely less than 5 au and can be much smaller if the dust continuum is optically thick. If, however, the dust emission is optically thin, then the SR 12 c disk has a comparable dust mass to the circumplanetary disk around PDS 70 c but is about five times lower than that of the $\sim$12 $M_{\rm Jup}$ free-floating OTS 44. This suggests that disks around bound and unbound planetary-mass objects can span a wide range of masses. The gas mass estimated with an accretion rate of $10^{-11}~M_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$ implies a gas-to-dust ratio higher than 100. If cloud absorption is not significant, a nondetection of ${}^{12}$CO(3-2) implies a compact gas disk around SR 12 c. Future sensitive observations may detect more PMC disks at 0.88 mm flux densities of $\lesssim$100 $μ$Jy.

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arXiv2021

Characterizing deformable mirrors for the MagAO-X instrument

The MagAO-X instrument is a new extreme adaptive optics system for high-contrast imaging at visible and near-infrared wavelengths on the Magellan Clay Telescope. A central component of this system is a 2040-actuator microelectromechanical deformable mirror (DM) from Boston Micromachines Corp. that operates at 3.63 kHz for high-order wavefront control (the tweeter). Two additional DMs from ALPAO perform the low-order (the woofer) and non-common-path science-arm wavefront correction (the NCPC DM). Prior to integration with the instrument, we characterized these devices using a Zygo Verifire Interferometer to measure each DM surface. We present the results of the characterization effort here, demonstrating the ability to drive tweeter to a flat of 6.9 nm root mean square (RMS) surface (and 0.56 nm RMS surface within its control bandwidth), the woofer to 2.2 nm RMS surface, and the NCPC DM to 2.1 nm RMS surface over the MagAO-X beam footprint on each device. Using focus-diversity phase retrieval on the MagAO-X science cameras to estimate the internal instrument wavefront error (WFE), we further show that the integrated DMs correct the instrument WFE to 18.7 nm RMS, which, combined with a 11.7% pupil amplitude RMS, produces a Strehl ratio of 0.94 at H$α$.

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arXiv2021

High-contrast observations of brown dwarf companion HR 2562 B with the vector Apodizing Phase Plate coronagraph

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-stabilised 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-stabilisation, the companion is recovered sufficiently to measure a 3.94 $μ$m narrow-band contrast of (3.05$\pm$1.00) $\times$ 10$^{-4}$ ($Δ$m$_{3.94 μm}$ = 8.79$\pm$0.36 mag). Combined with archival GPI and SPHERE observations, our atmospheric modelling indicates a spectral type at the L/T transition with mass M = 29$\pm$15 M$_{\text{Jup}}$, consistent with literature results. However, effective temperature and surface gravity vary significantly depending on the wavebands considered (1200$\leq$T$_{\text{eff}}$(K)$\leq$1700 and 4.0$\leq$log(g)(dex)$\leq$5.0), reflecting the challenges of modelling objects at the L/T transition. Observations between 2.4-3.2 $μ$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 characterisation of high-contrast substellar companions, even in sub-optimal conditions, and provide new, complementary photometry of HR 2562 B.

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arXiv2021

Hubble Space Telescope UV and H$α$ Measurements of the Accretion Excess Emission from the Young Giant Planet PDS 70 b

Recent discoveries of young exoplanets within their natal disks offer exciting opportunities to study ongoing planet formation. In particular, a planet's mass accretion rate can be constrained by observing the accretion-induced excess emission. So far, planetary accretion is only probed by the H$α$ line, which is then converted to a total accretion luminosity using correlations derived for stars. However, the majority of the accretion luminosity is expected to emerge from hydrogen continuum emission, and is best measured in the ultraviolet (UV). In this paper, we present HST/WFC3/UVIS F336W (UV) and F656N (H$α$) high-contrast imaging observations of PDS 70. Applying a suite of novel observational techniques, we detect the planet PDS 70 b with signal-to-noise ratios of 5.3 and 7.8 in the F336W and F656N bands, respectively. This is the first time that an exoplanet has been directly imaged in the UV. Our observed H$α$ flux of PDS 70 b is higher by $3.5σ$ than the most recent published result. However, the light curve retrieved from our observations does not support greater than 30% variability in the planet's H$α$ emission in six epochs over a five-month timescale. We estimate a mass accretion rate of $1.4\pm0.2\times10^{-8}M_{\mathrm{Jup}}/\mathrm{yr}$. H$α$ accounts for 36% of the total accretion luminosity. Such a high proportion of energy released in line emission suggests efficient production of H$α$ emission in planetary accretion, and motivates using the H$α$ band for searches of accreting planets. These results demonstrate HST/WFC3/UVIS's excellent high-contrast imaging performance and highlight its potential for planet formation studies.

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arXiv2021

Data-driven subspace predictive control of adaptive optics for high-contrast imaging

The search for exoplanets is pushing adaptive optics systems on ground-based telescopes to their limits. One of the major limitations at small angular separations, exactly where exoplanets are predicted to be, is the servo-lag of the adaptive optics systems. The servo-lag error can be reduced with predictive control where the control is based on the future state of the atmospheric disturbance. We propose to use a linear data-driven integral predictive controller based on subspace methods that is updated in real time. The new controller only uses the measured wavefront errors and the changes in the deformable mirror commands, which allows for closed-loop operation without requiring pseudo-open loop reconstruction. This enables operation with non-linear wavefront sensors such as the pyramid wavefront sensor. We show that the proposed controller performs near-optimal control in simulations for both stationary and non-stationary disturbances and that we are able to gain several orders of magnitude in raw contrast. The algorithm has been demonstrated in the lab with MagAO-X, where we gain more than two orders of magnitude in contrast.

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arXiv2020

Magellan Adaptive Optics Imaging of PDS 70: Measuring the Mass Accretion Rate of a Young Giant Planet within a Gapped Disk

PDS 70b is a recently discovered and directly imaged exoplanet within the wide ($\gtrsim$40 au) cavity around PDS 70 (Keppler et al. 2018, Müller et al. 2018). Ongoing accretion onto the central star suggests that accretion onto PDS 70b may also be ongoing. We present the first high contrast images at H$α$ (656 nm) and nearby continuum (643 nm) of PDS 70 utilizing the MagAO system. The combination of these filters allows for the accretion rate of the young planet to be inferred, as hot infalling hydrogen gas will emit strongly at H$α$ over the optical continuum. We detected a source in H$α$ at the position of PDS 70b on two sequential nights in May 2018, for which we establish a false positive probability of $<$0.1%. We conclude that PDS 70b is a young, actively accreting planet. We utilize the H$α$ line luminosity to derive a mass accretion rate of $\dot M= 10^{-8\pm1}$ M$_{Jup}/yr$, where the large uncertainty is primarily due to the unknown amount of optical extinction from the circumstellar and circumplanetary disks. PDS 70b represents the second case of an accreting planet interior to a disk gap, and is among the early examples of a planet observed during its formation.

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arXiv2020

OGLE-2007-BLG-224L: Confirmation of Terrestrial Parallax

We present limits on the lens flux of OGLE-2007-BLG-224 based on MagAO imaging taken seven years after the microlensing event. At the time of the observations, the lens should have been separated from the microlensing source by 292 mas. However, no new sources are detected with MagAO. We place an upper limit on the lens flux of $H>20.57$. This measurement supports the conclusion of Gould et al. (2009) that the lens in this event should be a brown dwarf. This is the first test of a prediction based on the terrestrial microlens parallax effect and the first AO confirmation of a sub-stellar/dark microlens.

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arXiv2020

The Separation and H-alpha Contrasts of Massive Accreting Planets in the Gaps of Transitional Disks: Predicted H-alpha Protoplanet Yields for Adaptive Optics Surveys

We present a massive accreting gap (MAG) planet model that ensures large gaps in transitional disks are kept dust free by the scattering action of three co-planar quasi-circular planets in a 1:2:4 Mean Motion Resonance (MMR). This model uses the constraint of the observed gap size, and the dust-free nature of the gap, to determine within ~10% the possible orbits for 3 massive planets in an MMR. Calculated orbits are consistent with the observed orbits and H-alpha emission (the brightest line to observe these planets) for LkCa 15 b and PDS 70 b and PDS 70 c within observational errors. Moreover, the model suggests that the scarcity of detected H-alpha planets is likely a selection effect of the current limitations of non-coronagraphic, low (<10%) Strehl, H-alpha imaging with Adaptive Optics (AO) systems used in past H-alpha surveys. We predict that as higher Strehl AO systems (with high-performance custom coronagraphs; like 6.5-m Magellan Telescope MagAO-X system) are utilized at H-alpha the number of detected gap planets will substantially increase by more than tenfold. For example, we show that >25 new H-alpha "gap planets" are potentially discoverable by a survey of the best 19 transitional disks with MagAO-X. Detections of these accreting protoplanets will significantly improve our understanding of planet formation, planet growth and accretion, solar system architectures, and planet disk interactions.

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arXiv2020

Concept for the GMT High-Contrast Exoplanet Instrument GMagAO-X and the GMT High-Contrast Phasing Testbed with MagAO-X

Here we review the current conceptual optical mechanical design of GMagAO-X --the extreme AO (ExAO) system for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). The GMagAO-X tweeter deformable mirror (DM) design is novel in that it uses an optically distributed set of pupils that allows seven commercially available 3000 actuator BMC DMs to work "in parallel" to effectively create an ELT-scale ExAO tweeter DM --with all parts commercially available today. The GMagAO-X "parallel DM" tweeter will have 21,000 actuators to be used at ~2kHz update speeds enabling high-contrast science at ~5 mas separations in the visible and NIR of the spectrum (0.6-1.7 microns). To prove our concept for GMagAO-X several items must be lab tested: the optical/mechanical concept for the parallel DM; phasing of the GMT pupil; and solving the GMT's "isolated island effect" will all be demonstrated on an optical testbed at the University of Arizona. Here we outline the current design for this "GMT High-Contrast Testbed" that has been proposed jointly by GMTO and the University of Arizona which leverages the existing, operational, MagAO-X ExAO instrument to verify our approach to phase sensing and AO control for high-contrast GMT NGS science. We will also highlight how GMagAO-X can be mounted on the auxiliary port of the GMT and so remain gravity invariant. Since it is gravity invariant GMagAO-X can utilize a floating optical table to minimize flexure and NCP vibrations.

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arXiv2018

The LEECH Exoplanet Imaging Survey: Limits on Planet Occurrence Rates Under Conservative Assumptions

We present the results of the largest $L^{\prime}$ ($3.8~μ$m) direct imaging survey for exoplanets to date, the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI) Exozodi Exoplanet Common Hunt (LEECH). We observed 98 stars with spectral types from B to M. Cool planets emit a larger share of their flux in $L^{\prime}$ compared to shorter wavelengths, affording LEECH an advantage in detecting low-mass, old, and cold-start giant planets. We emphasize proximity over youth in our target selection, probing physical separations smaller than other direct imaging surveys. For FGK stars, LEECH outperforms many previous studies, placing tighter constraints on the hot-start planet occurrence frequency interior to $\sim20$ au. For less luminous, cold-start planets, LEECH provides the best constraints on giant-planet frequency interior to $\sim20$ au around FGK stars. Direct imaging survey results depend sensitively on both the choice of evolutionary model (e.g., hot- or cold-start) and assumptions (explicit or implicit) about the shape of the underlying planet distribution, in particular its radial extent. Artificially low limits on the planet occurrence frequency can be derived when the shape of the planet distribution is assumed to extend to very large separations, well beyond typical protoplanetary dust-disk radii ($\lesssim50$ au), and when hot-start models are used exclusively. We place a conservative upper limit on the planet occurrence frequency using cold-start models and planetary population distributions that do not extend beyond typical protoplanetary dust-disk radii. We find that $\lesssim90\%$ of FGK systems can host a 7 to 10 $M_{\mathrm{Jup}}$ planet from 5 to 50 au. This limit leaves open the possibility that planets in this range are common.

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arXiv2018

Focal plane wavefront sensing and control strategies for high-contrast imaging on the MagAO-X instrument

The Magellan extreme adaptive optics (MagAO-X) instrument is a new extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) system designed for operation in the visible to near-IR which will deliver high contrast-imaging capabilities. The main AO system will be driven by a pyramid wavefront sensor (PyWFS); however, to mitigate the impact of quasi-static and non-common path (NCP) aberrations, focal plane wavefront sensing (FPWFS) in the form of low-order wavefront sensing (LOWFS) and spatial linear dark field control (LDFC) will be employed behind a vector apodizing phase plate (vAPP) coronagraph using rejected starlight at an intermediate focal plane. These techniques will allow for continuous high-contrast imaging performance at the raw contrast level delivered by the vAPP coronagraph 6 x 10^-5. We present simulation results for LOWFS and spatial LDFC with a vAPP coronagraph, as well as laboratory results for both algorithms implemented with a vAPP coronagraph at the University of Arizona Extreme Wavefront Control Lab.

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arXiv2018

A locking clamp that enables high thermal and vibrational stability for kinematic optical mounts

One of the main pursuits of the MagAO-X project is imaging planets around nearby stars with the direct detection method utilizing an extreme AO system and a coronagraph and a large telescope. The MagAO-X astronomical coronagraph will be implemented on the 6.5 meter Clay Magellan Telescope in Chile. The 22 mirrors in the system require a high level of mirror stability. Our goal is less than 1 microradian drift in tilt per mirror per one degree Celsius change in temperature. There are no commercial 2inch kinematic optical mounts that are truly "zero-drift" from 0-20C. Our solution to this problem was to develop a locking clamp to keep our optics stable and fulfill our specifications. After performing temperature variation and thermal shock testing, we conclude that this novel locking clamp significantly increases the thermal stability of stainless steel mounts by ~10x but still allows accurate microradian positioning of a mirror. A provisional patent (#62/632,544) has been obtained for this mount.

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arXiv2018

Optical and mechanical design of the extreme AO coronagraphic instrument MagAO-X

Here we review the current optical mechanical design of MagAO-X. The project is post-PDR and has finished the design phase. The design presented here is the baseline to which all the optics and mechanics have been fabricated. The optical/mechanical performance of this novel extreme AO design will be presented here for the first time. Some highlights of the design are: 1) a floating, but height stabilized, optical table; 2) a Woofer tweeter (2040 actuator BMC MEMS DM) design where the Woofer can be the current f/16 MagAO ASM or, more likely, fed by the facility f/11 static secondary to an ALPAO DM97 woofer; 3) 22 very compact optical mounts that have a novel locking clamp for additional thermal and vibrational stability; 4) A series of four pairs of super-polished off-axis parabolic (OAP) mirrors with a relatively wide FOV by matched OAP clocking; 5) an advanced very broadband (0.5-1.7micron) ADC design; 6) A Pyramid (PWFS), and post-coronagraphic LOWFS NCP wavefront sensor; 7) a vAPP coronagraph for starlight suppression. Currently all the OAPs have just been delivered, and all the rest of the optics are in the lab. Most of the major mechanical parts are in the lab or instrument, and alignment of the optics has occurred for some of the optics (like the PWFS) and most of the mounts. First light should be in 2019A.

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arXiv2018

MagAO-X: project status and first laboratory results

MagAO-X is an entirely new "extreme" adaptive optics system for the Magellan Clay 6.5 m telescope, funded by the NSF MRI program starting in Sep 2016. The key science goal of MagAO-X is high-contrast imaging of accreting protoplanets at H$α$. With 2040 actuators operating at up to 3630 Hz, MagAO-X will deliver high Strehls (>70%), high resolution (19 mas), and high contrast ($< 1\times10^{-4}$) at H$α$ (656 nm). We present an overview of the MagAO-X system, review the system design, and discuss the current project status.

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arXiv2018

Design of the MagAO-X Pyramid Wavefront Sensor

Adaptive optics systems correct atmospheric turbulence in real time. Most adaptive optics systems used routinely correct in the near infrared, at wavelengths greater than 1 micron. MagAO- X is a new extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) instrument that will offer corrections at visible-to- near-IR wavelengths. MagAO-X will achieve Strehl ratios greater than 70% at H-alpha when running the 2040 actuator deformable mirror at 3.6 kHz. A visible pyramid wavefront sensor (PWFS) optimized for sensing at 600-1000 nm wavelengths will provide the high-order wavefront sensing on MagAO- X. We present the optical design and predicted performance of the MagAO-X pyramid wavefront sensor.

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