English

Ground-Based Direct Detection of Exoplanets with the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI)

Astrophysics 2019-08-19 v2

Abstract

The Gemini Planet (GPI) imager is an "extreme" adaptive optics system being designed and built for the Gemini Observatory. GPI combines precise and accurate wavefront control, diffraction suppression, and a speckle-suppressing science camera with integral field and polarimetry capabilities. GPI's primary science goal is the direct detection and characterization of young, Jovian-mass exoplanets. For systems younger than 2 Gyr exoplanets more massive than 6 MJ and semimajor axes beyond 10 AU are detected with completeness greater than 50%. GPI will also discover faint debris disks, explore icy moons and minor planets in the solar system, reveal high dynamic range main-sequence binaries, and study mass loss from evolved stars. This white paper explains the role of GPI in exoplanet discovery and characterization and summarizes our recommendations to the NSF-NASA-DOE Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee ExoPlanet Task Force.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0704.1454,
  title  = {Ground-Based Direct Detection of Exoplanets with the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI)},
  author = {James R. Graham and Bruce Macintosh and Rene Doyon and Don Gavel and James Larkin and Marty Levine and Ben Oppenheimer and David Palmer and Les Saddlemyer and Anand Sivaramakrishnan and Jean-Pierre Veran and Kent Wallace},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0704.1454},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

White paper submitted to the NSF-NASA-DOE Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee ExoPlanet Task Force