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The direct observation of extrasolar planets and their spectra is coming into reach with the new generation of ground-based near-IR interferometers, like the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). The high contrast between star and…
An ideal coronagraph with a band-limited image mask can efficiently image off-axis sources while removing identically all of the light from an on-axis source. However, strict mask construction tolerances limit the utility of this technique…
High-contrast imaging provided by a coronagraph is critical for the direction imaging of the Earth-like planet orbiting its bright parent star. A major limitation for such direct imaging is the speckle noise that is induced from the…
For diffraction-limited optical systems an accurate physical optics model is necessary to properly evaluate instrument performance. Astronomical observatories outfitted with coronagraphs for direct exoplanet imaging require physical optics…
Coronagraphy is an efficient technique for identifying and characterizing extra-solar planets orbiting in the habitable zone of their parent star. An important family of coronagraphs is based on amplitude or phase filters placed at an…
We employ the one-dimensional Fourier representation (1DFR) to analyze the 3-year WMAP de-biased internal linear combination (DILC) map and its possible contamination by galactic foregrounds. The 1DFR is a representation of the spherical…
We quantify the effects of refraction in transit transmission spectroscopy on spectral absorption features and on temporal variations that could be used to obtain altitude-dependent spectra for planets orbiting stars of different stellar…
Over the next decade, improvements in cosmological parameter constraints will be driven by surveys of large-scale structure. Its inherent non-linearity suggests that significant information will be embedded in higher correlations beyond the…
Recent theoretical work suggested upper bounds on the operating bandwidths of flat lenses. Here, we show how these bounds can be circumvented via a multi-level diffractive lens (MDL) of diameter = 100 mm, focal length = 200 mm, device…
We present high resolution transmission spectra of giant planet atmospheres from a coupled 3-D atmospheric dynamics and transmission spectrum model that includes Doppler shifts which arise from winds and planetary motion. We model jovian…
We explore the detection condition of a wide-separation planet through the perturbation induced by the planetary caustic for various microlensing parameters, especially for the size of the source stars. By constructing the fractional…
This paper presents a conceptual design for a spectrometer designed specifically for characterizing transiting exoplanets with space-borne infrared telescopes. The design adopting cross-dispersion is intended to be simple, compact, highly…
High contrast coronagraphic imaging of the immediate surrounding of stars requires exquisite control of low-order wavefront aberrations, such as tip-tilt (pointing) and focus. We propose an accurate, efficient and easy to implement…
We present the DustFilaments code, a full sky model for the millimeter Galactic emission of thermal dust. Our model, composed of millions of filaments that are imperfectly aligned with the magnetic field, is able to reproduce the main…
We present an approach for utilizing astrometric orbit information to improve the yield of planetary images and spectra from a follow-on direct detection mission. This approach is based on the notion-strictly hypothetical-that if a…
NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) aims to achieve starlight suppression to the $10^{-10}$ level for the detection and spectral characterization of Earth-like exoplanets. Broadband ozone absorption features are key biosignatures that…
We report a study exploring how the use of deep neural networks with astronomical Big Data may help us find and uncover new insights into underlying phenomena: through our experiments towards unsupervised knowledge extraction from…
Future radial velocity, astrometric, and direct-imaging surveys will find nearby Earth-sized planets within the habitable zone in the near future. How can we search for water and oxygen in those nontransiting planets? We show that a…
Earlier apodized-pupil Lyot coronagraphs (APLC) have been studied and developed to enable high-contrast imaging for exoplanet detection and characterization with present-day ground-based telescopes. With the current interest in the…
Strongly lensed quasars with time-delay measurements are well known to provide the "time-delay distances" $D_{\Delta t}=(1+z_L)D_LD_S/D_{LS}$ and the angular diameter distances to lens galaxies $D_L$. These two kinds of distances give…