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 more likely to host planets with masses between 2 and 13MJup and semimajor axes of 3-100 au at 99.92% confidence. We fit a double power-law model in planet mass (m) and semimajor axis (a) for planet populations around high-mass stars (M* > 1.5 M ) of the form , finding = −2.4 0.8 and β = −2.0 0.5, and an integrated occurrence rate of % between 5-13MJup and 10-100 au. A significantly lower occurrence rate is obtained for brown dwarfs around all stars, with % of stars hosting a brown dwarf companion between 13-80MJup and 10-100 au. Brown dwarfs also appear to be distributed differently in mass and semimajor axis compared to giant planets; whereas giant planets follow a bottom-heavy mass distribution and favor smaller semimajor axes, brown dwarfs exhibit just the opposite behaviors. Comparing to studies of short-period giant planets from the radial velocity method, our results are consistent with a peak in occurrence of giant planets between ∼1 and 10 au. We discuss how these trends, including the preference of giant planets for high-mass host stars, point to formation of giant planets by core/pebble accretion, and formation of brown dwarfs by gravitational instability.
Young exoplanets are snapshots of the planetary evolution process. Planets that orbit stars in young associations are particularly important because the age of the planetary system is well ...constrained. We present the discovery of a transiting planet larger than Neptune but smaller than Saturn in the 45 Myr Tucana-Horologium young moving group. The host star is a visual binary, and our follow-up observations demonstrate that the planet orbits the G6V primary component, DS Tuc A (HD 222259A, TIC 410214986). We first identified transits using photometry from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS; alerted as TOI 200.01). We validated the planet and improved the stellar parameters using a suite of new and archival data, including spectra from Southern Astrophysical Research/Goodman, South African Extremely Large Telescope/High Resolution Spectrograph and Las Cumbres Observatories/Network of Robotic Echelle Spectrographs; transit photometry from Spitzer; and deep adaptive optics imaging from Gemini/Gemini Planet Imager. No additional stellar or planetary signals are seen in the data. We measured the planetary parameters by simultaneously modeling the photometry with a transit model and a Gaussian process to account for stellar variability. We determined that the planetary radius is 5.70 0.17 R⊕ and that the orbital period is 8.1 days. The inclination angles of the host star's spin axis, the planet's orbital axis, and the visual binary's orbital axis are aligned within 15° to within the uncertainties of the relevant data. DS Tuc Ab is bright enough (V = 8.5) for detailed characterization using radial velocities and transmission spectroscopy.
First light of the Gemini Planet Imager Macintosh, Bruce; Graham, James R.; Ingraham, Patrick ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS,
09/2014, Volume:
111, Issue:
35
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The Gemini Planet Imager is a dedicated facility for directly imaging and spectroscopically characterizing extrasolar planets. It combines a very high-order adaptive optics system, a ...diffraction-suppressing coronagraph, and an integral field spectrograph with low spectral resolution but high spatial resolution. Every aspect of the Gemini Planet Imager has been tuned for maximum sensitivity to faint planets near bright stars. During first-light observations, we achieved an estimated H band Strehl ratio of 0.89 and a 5-σ contrast of 10 ⁶ at 0.75 arcseconds and 10 ⁵ at 0.35 arcseconds. Observations of Beta Pictoris clearly detect the planet, Beta Pictoris b, in a single 60-s exposure with minimal postprocessing. Beta Pictoris b is observed at a separation of 434 ± 6 milliarcseconds (mas) and position angle 211.8 ± 0.5°. Fitting the Keplerian orbit of Beta Pic b using the new position together with previous astrometry gives a factor of 3 improvement in most parameters over previous solutions. The planet orbits at a semimajor axis of Formula near the 3:2 resonance with the previously known 6-AU asteroidal belt and is aligned with the inner warped disk. The observations give a 4% probability of a transit of the planet in late 2017.
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BFBNIB, NMLJ, NUK, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
We present L'-band imaging of the PDS 70 planetary system with Keck/NIRC2 using the new infrared pyramid wave front sensor. We detected both PDS 70 b and c in our images, as well as the front rim of ...the circumstellar disk. After subtracting off a model of the disk, we measured the astrometry and photometry of both planets. Placing priors based on the dynamics of the system, we estimated PDS 70 b to have a semimajor axis of au and PDS 70 c to have a semimajor axis of au (95% credible interval). We fit the spectral energy distribution (SED) of both planets. For PDS 70 b, we were able to place better constraints on the red half of its SED than previous studies and inferred the radius of the photosphere to be 2-3 RJup. The SED of PDS 70 c is less well constrained, with a range of total luminosities spanning an order of magnitude. With our inferred radii and luminosities, we used evolutionary models of accreting protoplanets to derive a mass of PDS 70 b between 2 and 4 MJup and a mean mass accretion rate between 3 × 10−7 and 8 × 10−7 MJup/yr. For PDS 70 c, we computed a mass between 1 and 3 MJup and mean mass accretion rate between 1 × 10−7 and 5 × 10−7 MJup/yr. The mass accretion rates imply dust accretion timescales short enough to hide strong molecular absorption features in both planets' SEDs.
We have obtained Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) J-, H-, K1-, and K2-Spec observations of the iconic debris ring around the young, main-sequence star HR 4796A. We applied several point-spread function ...(PSF) subtraction techniques to the observations (Mask-and-Interpolate, RDI-NMF, RDI-KLIP, and ADI-KLIP) to measure the geometric parameters and the scattering phase function for the disk. To understand the systematic errors associated with PSF subtraction, we also forward-modeled the observations using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo framework and a simple model for the disk. We found that measurements of the disk geometric parameters were robust, with all of our analyses yielding consistent results; however, measurements of the scattering phase function were challenging to reconstruct from PSF-subtracted images, despite extensive testing. As a result, we estimated the scattering phase function using disk modeling. We searched for a dependence of the scattering phase function with respect to the GPI filters but found none. We compared the H-band scattering phase function with that measured by Hubble Space Telescope STIS at visual wavelengths and discovered a blue color at small scattering angles and a red color at large scattering angles, consistent with predictions and laboratory measurements of large grains. Finally, we successfully modeled the SPHERE H2 HR 4796A scattered phase function using a distribution of hollow spheres composed of silicates, carbon, and metallic iron.
Abstract
The HR 8799 system hosts four massive planets orbiting 15 and 80 au. Studies of the system's orbital stability and its outer debris disk open the possibility of additional planets, both ...interior to and exterior to the known system. Reaching a sufficient sensitivity to search for interior planets is very challenging due to the combination of bright quasi-static speckle noise close to the stellar diffraction core and relatively fast orbital motion. In this work, we present a deep
L
-band imaging campaign using NIRC2 at Keck comprising 14 observing sequences. We further re-reduce archival data for a total of 16.75 hr, one of the largest uniform data sets of a single direct imaging target. Using a Bayesian modeling technique for detecting planets in images while compensating for plausible orbital motion, we then present deep limits on the existence of additional planets in the HR 8799 system. The final combination shows a tentative candidate, consistent with 4–7
M
jup
at 4–5 au, detected with an equivalent false-alarm probability better than 3
σ
. This analysis technique is widely applicable to archival data and to new observations from upcoming missions that revisit targets at multiple epochs.
We report the results of a ∼4 yr direct imaging survey of 104 stars to resolve and characterize circumstellar debris disks in scattered light as part of the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) Exoplanet ...Survey. We targeted nearby ( 150 pc), young ( 500 Myr) stars with high infrared (IR) excesses (LIR/L > 10−5), including 38 with previously resolved disks. Observations were made using the GPI high-contrast integral field spectrograph in H-band (1.6 m) coronagraphic polarimetry mode to measure both polarized and total intensities. We resolved 26 debris disks and 3 protoplanetary/transitional disks. Seven debris disks were resolved in scattered light for the first time, including newly presented HD 117214 and HD 156623, and we quantified basic morphologies of five of them using radiative transfer models. All of our detected debris disks except HD 156623 have dust-poor inner holes, and their scattered-light radii are generally larger than corresponding radii measured from resolved thermal emission and those inferred from spectral energy distributions. To assess sensitivity, we report contrasts and consider causes of nondetections. Detections were strongly correlated with high IR excess and high inclination, although polarimetry outperformed total intensity angular differential imaging for detecting low-inclination disks ( 70°). Based on postsurvey statistics, we improved upon our presurvey target prioritization metric predicting polarimetric disk detectability. We also examined scattered-light disks in the contexts of gas, far-IR, and millimeter detections. Comparing H-band and ALMA fluxes for two disks revealed tentative evidence for differing grain properties. Finally, we found no preference for debris disks to be detected in scattered light if wide-separation substellar companions were present.
Cirrhosis, highly prevalent worldwide, develops after years of hepatic inflammation triggering progressive fibrosis. Currently, the main etiologies of cirrhosis are non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease ...and alcohol‐related liver disease, although chronic hepatitis B and C infections are still major etiological factors in some areas of the world. Recent studies have shown that liver fibrosis can be assessed with relatively high accuracy noninvasively by serological tests, transient elastography, and radiological methods. These modalities may be utilized for screening for liver fibrosis in at‐risk populations. Thus far, a limited number of population‐based studies using noninvasive tests in different areas of the world indicate that a significant percentage of subjects without known liver disease (around 5% in general populations and a higher rate −18% to 27%‐in populations with risk factors for liver disease) have significant undetected liver fibrosis or established cirrhosis. Larger international studies are required to show the harms and benefits before concluding that screening for liver fibrosis should be applied to populations at risk for chronic liver diseases. Screening for liver fibrosis has the potential for changing the current approach from diagnosing chronic liver diseases late when patients have already developed complications of cirrhosis to diagnosing liver fibrosis in asymptomatic subjects providing the opportunity of preventing disease progression.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
We present a new matched-filter algorithm for direct detection of point sources in the immediate vicinity of bright stars. The stellar point-spread function (PSF) is first subtracted using a ...Karhunen-Loéve image processing (KLIP) algorithm with angular and spectral differential imaging (ADI and SDI). The KLIP-induced distortion of the astrophysical signal is included in the matched-filter template by computing a forward model of the PSF at every position in the image. To optimize the performance of the algorithm, we conduct extensive planet injection and recovery tests and tune the exoplanet spectra template and KLIP reduction aggressiveness to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of the recovered planets. We show that only two spectral templates are necessary to recover any young Jovian exoplanets with minimal S/N loss. We also developed a complete pipeline for the automated detection of point-source candidates, the calculation of receiver operating characteristics (ROC), contrast curves based on false positives, and completeness contours. We process in a uniform manner more than 330 data sets from the Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey and assess GPI typical sensitivity as a function of the star and the hypothetical companion spectral type. This work allows for the first time a comparison of different detection algorithms at a survey scale accounting for both planet completeness and false-positive rate. We show that the new forward model matched filter allows the detection of 50% fainter objects than a conventional cross-correlation technique with a Gaussian PSF template for the same false-positive rate.
Abstract
We explore KLIP forward modeling spectral extraction on Gemini Planet Imager coronagraphic data of HR 8799, using
PyKLIP,
and show algorithm stability with varying KLIP parameters. We report ...new and re-reduced spectrophotometry of HR 8799 c, d, and e in the
H
and
K
bands. We discuss a strategy for choosing optimal KLIP PSF subtraction parameters by injecting simulated sources and recovering them over a range of parameters. The
K1
/
K2
spectra for HR 8799 c and d are similar to previously published results from the same data set. We also present a
K
-band spectrum of HR 8799 e for the first time and show that our
H
-band spectra agree well with previously published spectra from the VLT/SPHERE instrument. We show that HR 8799 c and d show significant differences in their
H
and
K
spectra, but do not find any conclusive differences between d and e, nor between c and e, likely due to large error bars in the recovered spectrum of e. Compared to M-, L-, and T-type field brown dwarfs, all three planets are most consistent with mid- and late-L spectral types. All objects are consistent with low gravity, but a lack of standard spectra for low gravity limit the ability to fit the best spectral type. We discuss how dedicated modeling efforts can better fit HR 8799 planets’ near-IR flux, as well as how differences between the properties of these planets can be further explored.
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