Paper
21 July 2014 CHARIS science: performance simulations for the Subaru Telescope's third-generation of exoplanet imaging instrumentation
Timothy D. Brandt, Michael W. McElwain, Markus Janson, Gillian R. Knapp, Kyle Mede, Mary Anne Limbach, Tyler Groff, Adam Burrows, James E. Gunn, Olivier Guyon, Jun Hashimoto, Masahiko Hayashi, Nemanja Jovanovic, N. Jeremy Kasdin, Masayuki Kuzuhara, Robert H. Lupton, Frantz Martinache, Satoko Sorahana, David S. Spiegel, Naruhisa Takato, Motohide Tamura, Edwin L. Turner, Robert Vanderbei, John Wisniewski
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
We describe the expected scientific capabilities of CHARIS, a high-contrast integral-field spectrograph (IFS) currently under construction for the Subaru telescope. CHARIS is part of a new generation of instruments, enabled by extreme adaptive optics (AO) systems (including SCExAO at Subaru), that promise greatly improved contrasts at small angular separation thanks to their ability to use spectral information to distinguish planets from quasistatic speckles in the stellar point-spread function (PSF). CHARIS is similar in concept to GPI and SPHERE, on Gemini South and the Very Large Telescope, respectively, but will be unique in its ability to simultaneously cover the entire near-infrared J, H, and K bands with a low-resolution mode. This extraordinarily broad wavelength coverage will enable spectral differential imaging down to angular separations of a few λ/D, corresponding to ~0".1. SCExAO will also offer contrast approaching 10-5 at similar separations, ~0".1–0".2. The discovery yield of a CHARIS survey will depend on the exoplanet distribution function at around 10 AU. If the distribution of planets discovered by radial velocity surveys extends unchanged to ~20 AU, observations of ~200 mostly young, nearby stars targeted by existing high-contrast instruments might find ~1–3 planets. Carefully optimizing the target sample could improve this yield by a factor of a few, while an upturn in frequency at a few AU could also increase the number of detections. CHARIS, with a higher spectral resolution mode of R ~ 75, will also be among the best instruments to characterize planets and brown dwarfs like HR 8799 cde and κ and b.
© (2014) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Timothy D. Brandt, Michael W. McElwain, Markus Janson, Gillian R. Knapp, Kyle Mede, Mary Anne Limbach, Tyler Groff, Adam Burrows, James E. Gunn, Olivier Guyon, Jun Hashimoto, Masahiko Hayashi, Nemanja Jovanovic, N. Jeremy Kasdin, Masayuki Kuzuhara, Robert H. Lupton, Frantz Martinache, Satoko Sorahana, David S. Spiegel, Naruhisa Takato, Motohide Tamura, Edwin L. Turner, Robert Vanderbei, and John Wisniewski "CHARIS science: performance simulations for the Subaru Telescope's third-generation of exoplanet imaging instrumentation", Proc. SPIE 9148, Adaptive Optics Systems IV, 914849 (21 July 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2057256
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Cited by 8 scholarly publications.
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KEYWORDS
Stars

Planets

Exoplanets

Telescopes

Adaptive optics

Gemini Planet Imager

Coronagraphy

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