Frantz Martinache

MAPPING THE SHORES OF THE BROWN DWARF DESERT. II. MULTIPLE STAR FORMATION IN TAURUS-AURIGA

We have conducted a high-resolution imaging study of the Taurus-Auriga star-forming region in order to characterize the primordial outcome of multiple star formation and the extent of the brown dwarf desert. Our survey identified 16 new binary companions to primary stars with masses of 0.25-2.5 M_☉, raising the total number of binary pairs (including components of high-order multiples) with separations of 3-5000 AU to 90. We find that ~2/3-3/4 of all Taurus members are multiple systems of two or more stars, while the other ~1/4-1/3 appear to have formed as single stars; the distribution of high-order multiplicity suggests that fragmentation into a wide binary has no impact on the subsequent probability that either component will fragment again. The separation distribution for solar-type stars (0.7-2.5 M_☉) is nearly log-flat over separations of 3-5000 AU, but lower-mass stars (0.25-0.7 M_☉) show a paucity of binary companions with separations of ≳200 AU. Across this full mass range, companion masses are well described with a linear-flat function; all system mass ratios (q = M_(B) /M_(A)) are equally probable, apparently including substellar companions. Our results are broadly consistent with the two expected modes of binary formation (free-fall fragmentation on large scales and disk fragmentation on small scales), but the distributions provide some clues as to the epochs at which the companions are likely to form.

THE ROLE OF MULTIPLICITY IN DISK EVOLUTION AND PLANET FORMATION

The past decade has seen a revolution in our understanding of protoplanetary disk evolution and planet formation in single-star systems. However, the majority of solar-type stars form in binary systems, so the impact of binary companions on protoplanetary disks is an important element in our understanding of planet formation. We have compiled a combined multiplicity/disk census of Taurus-Auriga, plus a restricted sample of close binaries in other regions, in order to explore the role of multiplicity in disk evolution. Our results imply that the tidal influence of a close (≾ 40 AU) binary companion significantly hastens the process of protoplanetary disk dispersal, as ~2/3 of all close binaries promptly disperse their disks within ≾1 Myr after formation. However, prompt disk dispersal only occurs for a small fraction of wide binaries and single stars, with ~80%-90% retaining their disks for at least ~2-3 Myr (but rarely for more than ~5 Myr). Our new constraints on the disk clearing timescale have significant implications for giant planet formation; most single stars have 3-5 Myr within which to form giant planets, whereas most close binary systems would have to form giant planets within ≾1 Myr. If core accretion is the primary mode for giant planet formation, then gas giants in close binaries should be rare. Conversely, since almost all single stars have a similar period of time within which to form gas giants, their relative rarity in radial velocity (RV) surveys indicates either that the giant planet formation timescale is very well matched to the disk dispersal timescale or that features beyond the disk lifetime set the likelihood of giant planet formation.

MAPPING THE SHORES OF THE BROWN DWARF DESERT. I. UPPER SCORPIUS

We present the results of a survey for stellar and substellar companions to 82 young stars in the nearby OB association Upper Scorpius. This survey used nonredundant aperture mask interferometry to achieve typical contrast limits of ΔK ~5-6 at the diffraction limit, revealing 12 new binary companions that lay below the detection limits of traditional high-resolution imaging; we also summarize a complementary snapshot imaging survey that discovered seven directly resolved companions. The overall frequency of binary companions (~35 +5 -4% at separations of 6-435 AU) appears to be equivalent to field stars of similar mass, but companions could be more common among lower mass stars than for the field. The companion mass function has statistically significant differences compared to several suggested mass functions for the field, and we suggest an alternate lognormal parameterization of the mass function. Our survey limits encompass the entire brown dwarf mass range, but we only detected a single companion that might be a brown dwarf; this deficit resembles the so-called brown dwarf desert that has been observed by radial velocity planet searches. Finally, our survey’s deep detection limits extend into the top of the planetary mass function, reaching 8-12 MJup for half of our sample. We have not identified any planetary companions at high confidence (≳99.5%), but we have identified four candidate companions at lower confidence (≳97.5%) that merit additional follow-up to confirm or disprove their existence.

Two Wide Planetary-mass Companions to Solar-type Stars in Upper Scorpius

At wide separations, planetary-mass and brown dwarf companions to solar-type stars occupy a curious region of parameter space not obviously linked to binary star formation or solar system scale planet formation. These companions provide insight into the extreme case of companion formation (either binary or planetary), and due to their relative ease of observation when compared to close companions, they offer a useful template for our expectations of more typical planets. We present the results from an adaptive optics imaging survey for wide (~50–500 AU) companions to solar-type stars in Upper Scorpius. We report one new discovery of a ~14 M_J companion around GSC 06214−00210and confirm that the candidate planetary-mass companion 1RXS J160929.1−210524 detected by Lafreniere et al. is in fact comoving with its primary star. In our survey, these two detections correspond to ~4% of solar-type stars having companions in the 6–20 M_J mass and ~200–500 AU separation range. This figure is higher than would be expected if brown dwarfs and planetary-mass companions were drawn from an extrapolation of the binary mass function. Finally, we discuss implications for the formation of these objects.

The Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics System: Enabling High-Contrast Imaging on Solar-System Scales

The Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics (SCExAO) instrument is a multipurpose high-contrast imaging platform designed for the discovery and detailed characterization of exoplanetary systems and serves as a testbed for high-contrast imaging technologies for ELTs. It is a multi-band instrument which makes use of light from 600 to 2500nm allowing for coronagraphic direct exoplanet imaging of the inner 3 lambda/D from the stellar host. Wavefront sensing and control are key to the operation of SCExAO. A partial correction of low-order modes is provided by Subarus facility adaptive optics system with the final correction, including high-order modes, implemented downstream by a combination of a visible pyramid wavefront sensor and a 2000-element deformable mirror. The well corrected NIR (y-K bands) wavefronts can then be injected into any of the available coronagraphs, including but not limited to the phase induced amplitude apodization and the vector vortex coronagraphs, both of which offer an inner working angle as low as 1 lambda/D. Non-common path, low-order aberrations are sensed with a coronagraphic low-order wavefront sensor in the infrared (IR). Low noise, high frame rate, NIR detectors allow for active speckle nulling and coherent differential imaging, while the HAWAII 2RG detector in the HiCIAO imager and/or the CHARIS integral field spectrograph (from mid 2016) can take deeper exposures and/or perform angular, spectral and polarimetric differential imaging. Science in the visible is provided by two interferometric modules: VAMPIRES and FIRST, which enable sub-diffraction limited imaging in the visible region with polarimetric and spectroscopic capabilities respectively. We describe the instrument in detail and present preliminary results both on-sky and in the laboratory.

High performance Lyot and PIAA coronagraphy for arbitrarily shaped telescope apertures

Two high-performance coronagraphic approaches compatible with segmented and obstructed telescope pupils are described. Both concepts use entrance pupil amplitude apodization and a combined phase and amplitude focal plane mask to achieve full coronagraphic extinction of an on-axis point source. While the first concept, called Apodized Pupil Complex Mask Lyot Coronagraph (APCMLC), relies on a transmission mask to perform the pupil apodization, the second concept, called Phase-Induced Amplitude Apodization complex mask coronagraph (PIAACMC), uses beam remapping for lossless apodization. Both concepts theoretically offer complete coronagraphic extinction (infinite contrast) of a point source in monochromatic light, with high throughput and sub-λ/D inner working angle, regardless of aperture shape. The PIAACMC offers nearly 100% throughput and approaches the fundamental coronagraph performance limit imposed by first principles. The steps toward designing the coronagraphs for arbitrary apertures are described for monochromatic light. Designs for the APCMLC and the higher performance PIAACMC are shown for several monolith and segmented apertures, such as the apertures of the Subaru Telescope, Giant Magellan Telescope, Thirty Meter Telescope, the European Extremely Large Telescope, and the Large Binocular Telescope. Performance in broadband light is also quantified, suggesting that the monochromatic designs are suitable for use in up to 20% wide spectral bands for ground-based telescopes.

DYNAMICAL MASS OF GJ 802B : A BROWN DWARF IN A TRIPLE SYSTEM

We report a dynamical measurement of the mass of the brown dwarf GJ 802B using aperture-masking interferometry and astrometry. In addition, we report the discovery that GJ 802A is itself a close spectroscopic noneclipsing binary with a 19 hr period. We find the mass of GJ 802B to be 0:063 ± 0:005M⊙. GJ 802 has kinematics inconsistent with a young star and more consistent with the thick-disk population, implying a system age of ~10 Gyr. However, model evolutionary tracks for GJ 802B predict system ages of ~2 Gyr, suggesting that brown dwarf evolutionary models may be underestimating luminosity for old brown dwarfs.

KERNEL-PHASE IN FIZEAU INTERFEROMETRY

The detection of high contrast companions at small angular separation appears feasible in conventional direct images using the self-calibration properties of interferometric observable quantities. The friendly notion of closure phase, which is key to the recent observational successes of non-redundant aperture masking interferometry used with adaptive optics, appears to be one example of a wide family of observable quantities that are not contaminated by phase noise. In the high-Strehl regime, soon to be available thanks to the coming generation of extreme adaptive optics systems on ground-based telescopes, and already available from space, closure phase like information can be extracted from any direct image, even taken with a redundant aperture. These new phase-noise immune observable quantities, called kernel phases, are determined a priori from the knowledge of the geometry of the pupil only. Re-analysis of archive data acquired with the Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS instrument using this new kernel-phase algorithm demonstrates the power of the method as it clearly detects and locates with milliarcsecond precision a known companion to a star at angular separation less than the diffraction limit.

MAPPING THE SHORES OF THE BROWN DWARF DESERT. III. YOUNG MOVING GROUPS

We present the results of an aperture-masking interferometry survey for substellar companions around 67 members of the young (~8-200 Myr) nearby (~5-86 pc) AB Doradus, β Pictoris, Hercules-Lyra, TW Hya, and Tucana-Horologium stellar associations. Observations were made at near-infrared wavelengths between 1.2 and 3.8 μm using the adaptive optics facilities of the Keck II, Very Large Telescope UT4, and Palomar Hale Telescopes. Typical contrast ratios of ~100-200 were achieved at angular separations between ~40 and 320 mas, with our survey being 100% complete for companions with masses below ~0.25 M_☉ across this range. We report the discovery of a 0.52 ± 0.09 M_☉ companion to HIP 14807, as well as the detections and orbits of previously known stellar companions to HD 16760, HD 113449, and HD 160934. We show that the companion to HD 16760 is in a face-on orbit, resulting in an upward revision of its mass from M_2 sin i ~ 14 M_J to M_2 = 0.28 ± 0.04 M_☉. No substellar companions were detected around any of our sample members, despite our ability to detect companions with masses below 80 M_J for 50 of our targets: of these, our sensitivity extended down to 40 M_J around 30 targets, with a subset of 22 subject to the still more stringent limit of 20 M_J. A statistical analysis of our non-detection of substellar companions allows us to place constraints on their frequency around ~0.2-1.5 M_☉ stars. In particular, considering companion mass distributions that have been proposed in the literature, we obtain an upper limit estimate of ~9%-11% for the frequency of 20-80 M_J companions between 3 and 30 AU at 95% confidence, assuming that their semimajor axes are distributed according to dN/da ∝ a^(-1) in this range.

The performance of TripleSpec at Palomar

We report the performance of Triplespec from commissioning observations on the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory. Triplespec is one of a set of three near-infrared, cross-dispersed spectrographs covering wavelengths from 1 - 2.4 microns simultaneously at a resolution of ~2700. At Palomar, Triplespec uses a 1×30 arcsecond slit. Triplespec will be used for a variety of scientific observations, including moderate to high redshift galaxies, star formation, and low mass stars and brown dwarfs. When used in conjunction with an externally dispersed interferometer, Triplespec will also detect and characterize extrasolar planets.