Related papers: First High Contrast Imaging Using a Gaussian Apert…
CONTEXT: Combining high-contrast imaging with high-resolution spectroscopy offers a powerful way to detect and characterize exoplanets around nearby stars, despite challenges linked to their faintness. Instruments like VLT/SPHERE are state…
We report observations of the z = 3.87 broad absorption line quasar APM 08279+5255 (Irwin et al. 1998) with the Adaptive Optics Bonnette (AOB) of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. The object is found to be a double source. The separation…
The coronagraph instrument on the WFIRST-AFTA mission study has two coronagraphic architectures, shaped pupil and hybrid Lyot, which may be interchanged for use in different observing scenarios. Each architecture relies on newly-developed…
We propose a novel method to detect axions which uniquely depends on the dimensionless axion-photon coupling $g_{\gamma}$, independent of the suppressive axion decay constant $f_a$. Using neutron star PSR B1919+21 data from the…
The JWST NIRSpec integral field unit (IFU) presents a unique opportunity to observe directly imaged exoplanets from 3-5 um at moderate spectral resolution (R~2,700) and thereby better constrain the composition, disequilibrium chemistry, and…
Aims: In this work, we discuss a way to combine High Dispersion Spectroscopy and High Contrast Imaging (HDS+HCI). For a planet located at a resolvable angular distance from its host star, the starlight can be reduced up to several orders of…
We describe a new technique for measuring accurate galaxy colours from images taken under different seeing conditions. The method involves two ingredients. First we define the Gaussian-aperture-and-PSF flux, which is the Gaussian-weighted…
Direct exo-Earth imaging is a key science goal for astronomy in the next decade. This ambitious task imposes a target contrast of ~10^-7 at wavelengths from I to J-band. In our prior study, we determined that polarization aberrations can…
Among the main disadvantages of using silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) in large experiments are their limited physical area (increasing the cost and the complexity of the readout of a camera) and their sensitivity to unwanted wavelengths.…
The EXoplanetary Circumstellar Environments and Disk Explorer (EXCEDE) science mission concept uses a visible-wavelength Phase-Induced Amplitude Apodization (PIAA) coronagraph to enable high-contrast imaging of circumstellar debris systems…
Pupil mapping is a promising and unconventional new method for high contrast imaging being considered for terrestrial exoplanet searches. It employs two (or more) specially designed aspheric mirrors to create a high-contrast amplitude…
The Giant Magellan Adaptive Optics eXtreme (GMagAO-X) instrument is a first-light high-contrast imaging instrument for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). GMagAO-X's broad wavelength range and the large 25-meter aperture of the GMT creates…
We present the first results obtained at CFHT with the TRIDENT infrared camera, dedicated to the detection of faint companions close to bright nearby stars. Its main feature is the acquisition of three simultaneous images in three…
The realization that direct imaging of extrasolar planets could be technologically feasible within the next decade or so has inspired a great deal of recent research into high-contrast imaging. We ourselves have contributed several design…
Future large space- or ground-based telescopes will offer the resolution and sensitivity to probe the habitable zone of a large sample of nearby stars for exo-Earth imaging. To this end, such facilities are expected to be equipped with a…
We present the preliminary design of GMagAO-X, the first-light high-contrast imager planned for the Giant Magellan Telescope. GMagAO-X will realize the revolutionary increase in spatial resolution and sensitivity provided by the 25 m GMT.…
We have observed two of the six Frontier Fields galaxy clusters, MACS J0416.1-2403 and Abell 2744, using the Gemini Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics System (GeMS) and the Gemini South Adaptive Optics Imager (GSAOI). With 0.08"-0.10" FWHM our…
In this contribution I review the present status and discuss some prospects for indirect detection of dark matter with gamma-rays. Thanks to the Fermi Large Area Telescope, searches in gamma-rays have reached sensitivities that allow to…
Stars with debris disks are intriguing targets for direct imaging exoplanet searches, both due to previous detections of wide planets in debris disk systems, as well as commonly existing morphological features in the disks themselves that…
The azimuthal correlations of direct photons ($\gamma_{_{dir}}$) with high transverse momentum ($p_{_{T}}$), produced at mid-rapidity ($|\eta^{\gamma_{_{dir}}}|<1$) in Au+Au collisions at center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$~GeV,…