Physical Sciences and Mathematics | Open Access Articles

Detection Of A Low-Mass Stellar Companion To The Accelerating A2iv Star Hr 1645, Robert J. De Rosa, Eric L. Nielsen, Julien Rameau, Gaspard Duchêne, Alexandra Z. Greenbaum, Jason J. Wang, S. Mark Ammons, Vanessa P. Bailey, Travis Barman, Joanna Bulger, Jeffrey Chilcote, Tara Cotten, Rene Doyon, Thomas M. Esposito, Michael P. Fitzgerald, Katherine B. Follette, Benjamin L. Gerard, Stephen J. Goodsell, James R. Graham, Pascale Hibon, Justin Hom, Li Wei Hung, Patrick Ingraham, Paul Kalas, Quinn Konopacky, James E. Larkin, Bruce Macintosh, Jérôme Maire, Franck Marchis, Mark S. Marley, Christian Marois, Stanimir Metchev, Kimberly Ward-Duong, Et Al

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

The ∼500 Myr A2IV star HR 1645 has one of the most significant low-amplitude accelerations of nearby early-type stars measured from a comparison of the Hipparcos and Gaia astrometric catalogs. This signal is consistent with either a stellar companion with a moderate mass ratio (q ∼ 0.5) on a short period (P < 1 yr), or a substellar companion at a separation wide enough to be resolved with ground-based high-contrast imaging instruments; long-period equal-mass ratio stellar companions that are also consistent with the measured acceleration are excluded with previous imaging observations. The small but significant amplitude of the acceleration made HR 1645 a promising candidate for targeted searches for brown dwarf and planetary-mass companions around nearby, young stars. In this paper we explore the origin of the astrometric acceleration by modeling the signal induced by a wide-orbit M8 companion discovered with the Gemini Planet Imager, as well as the effects of an inner short-period spectroscopic companion discovered a century ago but not since followed up. We present the first constraints on the orbit of the inner companion, and demonstrate that it is a plausible cause of the astrometric acceleration. This result demonstrates the importance of vetting of targets with measured astrometric acceleration for short-period stellar companions prior to conducting targeted direct imaging surveys for wide-orbit substellar companions.

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Asymmetries In Adaptive Optics Point Spread Functions, Alexander Madurowicz, Bruce Macintosh, Jeffrey Chilcote, Marshall Perrin, Lisa Poyneer, Laurent Pueyo, Jean Baptiste Ruffio, Vanessa P. Bailey, Travis Barman, Joanna Bulger, Tara Cotten, Robert J. De Rosa, Rene Doyon, Gaspard Duchêne, Thomas M. Esposito, Michael P. Fitzgerald, Katherine B. Follette, Benjamin L. Gerard, Stephen J. Goodsell, James R. Graham, Alexandra Z. Greenbaum, Pascale Hibon, Li Wei Hung, Patrick Ingraham, Paul Kalas, Quinn Konopacky, Jérôme Maire, Franck Marchis, Mark S. Marley, Christian Marois, Stanimir Metchev, Maxwell A. Millar-Blanchaer, Kimberly Ward-Duong

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

An explanation for the origin of asymmetry along the preferential axis of the point spread function (PSF) of an AO system is developed. When phase errors from high-altitude turbulence scintillate due to Fresnel propagation, wavefront amplitude errors may be spatially offset from residual phase errors. These correlated errors appear as asymmetry in the image plane under the Fraunhofer condition. In an analytic model with an open-loop AO system, the strength of the asymmetry is calculated for a single mode of phase aberration, which generalizes to two dimensions under a Fourier decomposition of the complex illumination. Other parameters included are the …

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Light Pollution, Radio Interference, And Space Debris: Threats And Opportunities In The 2020s, Jeffrey Hall, Lori Allen, Douglas Arion, John Barentine, Daniel Caton, Harvey Liszt, James D. Lowenthal, Dan Mckenna, Ashley Pipkin, Patrick Seitzer, Constance Walker

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

In this white paper, we will outline threats to astronomy in the areas of light pollution, radio interference, and space debris, and we will specify key principles and policy points that the AAS and other advocates can use in mitigating these threats.

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An Exo-Kuiper Belt With An Extended Halo Around Hd 191089 In Scattered Light, Bin Ren, Élodie Choquet, Marshall D. Perrin, Gaspard Duchěne, John H. Debes, Laurent Pueyo, Malena Rice, Christine Chen, Glenn Schneider, Thomas M. Esposito, Charles A. Poteet, Jason J. Wang, S. Mark Ammons, Megan Ansdell, Pauline Arriaga, Vanessa P. Bailey, Travis Barman, Juan Sebastián Bruzzone, Joanna Bulger, Jeffrey Chilcote, Tara Cotten, Robert J. De Rosa, Rene Doyon, Michael P. Fitzgerald, Katherine B. Follette, Stephen J. Goodsell, Benjamin L. Gerard, James R. Graham, Alexandra Z. Greenbaum, J. Brendan Hagan, Pascale Hibon, Dean C. Hines, Kimberly Ward-Duong, Et Al

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

We have obtained Hubble Space Telescope STIS and NICMOS and Gemini/GPI scattered-light images of the HD 191089 debris disk. We identify two spatial components: a ring resembling the Kuiper Belt in radial extent (FWHM ∼ 25 au, centered at ∼46 au) and a halo extending to ∼640 au. We find that the halo is significantly bluer than the ring, consistent with the scenario that the ring serves as the "birth ring" for the smaller dust in the halo. We measure the scattering phase functions in the 30°-150° scattering-angle range and find that the halo dust is more forward- and backward-scattering …

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Embedding Climate Change Engagement In Astronomy Education And Research, Kathryn Williamson, Travis A. Rector, James D. Lowenthal

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

This White Paper is a call to action for astronomers to respond to climate change with a large structural transition within our profession. Many astronomers are deeply concerned about climate change and act upon it in their personal and professional lives, and many organizations within astronomy have incorporated incremental changes. We need a collective impact model to better network and grow our efforts so that we can achieve results that are on the scale appropriate to address climate change at the necessary level indicated by scientific research; e.g., becoming carbon neutral by 2050. We need to implement strategies within two …

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The Newborn Planet Population Emerging From Ring-Like Structures In Discs, Giuseppe Lodato, Giovanni Dipierro, Enrico Ragusa, Feng Long, Gregory J. Herczeg, Ilaria Pascucci, Paola Pinilla, Carlo F. Manara, Marco Tazzari, Yao Liu, Gijs D. Mulders, Daniel Harsono, Yann Boehler, François Ménard, Doug Johnstone, Colette Salyk, Gerrit Van Der Plas, Sylvie Cabrit, Suzan Edwards, William J. Fischer, Nathan Hendler, Brunella Nisini, Elisabetta Rigliaco, Henning Avenhaus, Andrea Banzatti, Michael Gully-Santiago

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

ALMA has observed a plethora of ring-like structures in planet-forming discs at distances of 10–100 au from their host star. Although several mechanisms have been invoked to explain the origin of such rings, a common explanation is that they trace new-born planets. Under the planetary hypothesis, a natural question is how to reconcile the apparently high frequency of gap-carving planets at 10–100 au with the paucity of Jupiter-mass planets observed around main-sequence stars at those separations. Here, we provide an analysis of the new-born planet population emerging from observations of gaps in discs, under the assumption that the observed gaps …

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Nature Of Faint Radio Sources In Goods-North And Goods-South Fields – I. Spectral Index And Radio-Fir Correlation, Hansung B. Gim, Min S. Yun, Frazer N. Owen, Emmanuel Momjian, Neal A. Miller, Mauro Giavalisco, Grant Wilson, James Lowenthal, Itziar Aretxaga, David H. Hughes, Glenn E. Morrison, Ryohei Kawabe

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

We present the first results from the deep and wide 5 GHz radio observations of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS)-North (σ = 3.5 μJy beam−1, synthesized beam size θ = 147 × 142, and 52 sources over 109 arcmin2) and GOODS-South (σ = 3.0 μJy beam−1, θ = 098 × 045, and 88 sources over 190 arcmin2) fields using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. We derive radio spectral indices α between 1.4 and 5 GHz using the beam-matched images and show that the overall spectral index distribution is broad even when the …

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Neutral Gas Properties And Lyα Escape In Extreme Green Pea Galaxies, Jed H. Mckinney, Anne E. Jaskot, M. S. Oey, Min S. Yun, Tara Dowd, James Lowenthal

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

Mechanisms regulating the escape of Lyα photons and ionizing radiation remain poorly understood. To study these processes, we analyze Very Large Array 21 cm observations of one Green Pea (GP), J160810+352809 (hereafter J1608), and Hubble Space Telescope Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) spectra of 17 GP galaxies at . All are highly ionized: J1608 has the highest [O iii] λ5007/[O ii] λ3727 for star-forming galaxies in Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and the 17 GPs have [O iii]/[O ii] ≥ 6.6. We set an upper limit on J1608's H i mass of , near or below average compared to …

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Kinematic Links And The Coevolution Of Mhd Winds, Jets, And Inner Disks From A High-Resolution Optical [Oi] Survey, Andrea Banzatti, Ilaria Pascucci, Suzan Edwards, Min Fang, Uma Gorti, Mario Flock

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

We present a survey of optical [O I] emission at 6300 Å toward 65 T Tauri stars at the spectral resolution of ∼7 km s−1 . Past work identified a highly blueshifted velocity component (HVC) tracing microjets and a less blueshifted low-velocity component (LVC) attributed to winds. We focus here on the LVC kinematics to investigate links between winds, jets, accretion, and disk dispersal. We track the behavior of four types of LVC components: a broad and a narrow component (“BC” and “NC,” respectively) in LVCs that are decomposed into two Gaussians which typically have an HVC, and single-Gaussian LVC …

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Performance Of The Gemini Planet Imager Non-Redundant Mask And Spectroscopy Of Two Close-Separation Binaries: Hr 2690 And Hd 142527, Alexandra Z. Greenbaum, Anthony Cheetham, Anand Sivaramakrishnan, Fredrik T. Rantakyrö, Gaspard Duchêne, Peter Tuthill, Robert J. De Rosa, Rebecca Oppenheimer, Bruce Macintosh, S. Mark Ammons, Vanessa P. Bailey, Travis Barman, Joanna Bulger, Andrew Cardwell, Jeffrey Chilcote, Tara Cotten, Rene Doyon, Michael P. Fitzgerald, Katherine B. Follette, Benjamin L. Gerard, Stephen J. Goodsell, James R. Graham, Pascale Hibon, Li Wei Hung, Patrick Ingraham, Paul Kalas, Quinn Konopacky, James E. Larkin, Jérôme Maire, Franck Marchis, Mark S. Marley, Christian Marois, Kimberly Ward-Duong, Et Al

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) contains a 10-hole non-redundant mask (NRM), enabling interferometric resolution in complement to its coronagraphic capabilities. The NRM operates both in spectroscopic (integral field spectrograph, henceforth IFS) and polarimetric configurations. NRM observations were taken between 2013 and 2016 to characterize its performance. Most observations were taken in spectroscopic mode, with the goal of obtaining precise astrometry and spectroscopy of faint companions to bright stars. We find a clear correlation between residual wavefront error measured by the adaptive optic system and the contrast sensitivity by comparing phase errors in observations of the same source, taken on different …

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The Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey: Giant Planet And Brown Dwarf Demographics From 10 To 100 Au, Eric L. Nielsen, Robert J. De Rosa, Bruce Macintosh, Jason J. Wang, Jean Baptiste Ruffio, Eugene Chiang, Mark S. Marley, Didier Saumon, Dmitry Savransky, S. Mark Ammons, Vanessa P. Bailey, Travis Barman, Célia Blain, Joanna Bulger, Adam Burrows, Jeffrey Chilcote, Tara Cotten, Ian Czekala, Rene Doyon, Gaspard Duchene, Thomas M. Esposito, Daniel Fabrycky, Michael P. Fitzgerald, Katherine B. Follette, Jonathan J. Fortney, Benjamin L. Gerard, Stephen J. Goodsell, James R. Graham, Alexandra Z. Greenbaum, Pascale Hibon, Sasha Hinkley, Lea A. Hirsch, Kimberly Ward-Duong, Et Al

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

We present a statistical analysis of the first 300 stars observed by the Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey. This subsample includes six detected planets and three brown dwarfs; from these detections and our contrast curves we infer the underlying distributions of substellar companions with respect to their mass, semimajor axis, and host stellar mass. We uncover a strong correlation between planet occurrence rate and host star mass, with stars M ∗ >1.5 M o more likely to host planets with masses between 2 and 13M Jup and semimajor axes of 3-100 au at 99.92% confidence. We fit a double power-law …

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Astronomy: Faculty Publications

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

Light Pollution, Radio Interference, And Space Debris: Threats And Opportunities In The 2020s, Jeffrey Hall, Lori Allen, Douglas Arion, John Barentine, Daniel Caton, Harvey Liszt, James D. Lowenthal, Dan Mckenna, Ashley Pipkin, Patrick Seitzer, Constance Walker

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

Embedding Climate Change Engagement In Astronomy Education And Research, Kathryn Williamson, Travis A. Rector, James D. Lowenthal

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

Neutral Gas Properties And Lyα Escape In Extreme Green Pea Galaxies, Jed H. Mckinney, Anne E. Jaskot, M. S. Oey, Min S. Yun, Tara Dowd, James Lowenthal

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

Kinematic Links And The Coevolution Of Mhd Winds, Jets, And Inner Disks From A High-Resolution Optical [Oi] Survey, Andrea Banzatti, Ilaria Pascucci, Suzan Edwards, Min Fang, Uma Gorti, Mario Flock

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

Astronomy: Faculty Publications