Mapping Debris Disks at Extreme Contrast: Near-IR Polarimetric Differential Imaging with the Gemini Planet Imager
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Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 9-12-2018 1:00 PM Mapping Debris Disks at extreme contrast: near-IR Polarimetric Differential Imaging with the Gemini Planet Imager. Juan Sebastian Bruzzone The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Metchev, Stanimir A. The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Astronomy A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Juan Sebastian Bruzzone 2018 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Stars, Interstellar Medium and the Galaxy Commons Recommended Citation Bruzzone, Juan Sebastian, "Mapping Debris Disks at extreme contrast: near-IR Polarimetric Differential Imaging with the Gemini Planet Imager." (2018). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 5917. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/5917 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract Debris disks are gas-poor evolved circumstellar disks that show decreased near- to mid- infrared thermal excess emission because of lack of material close to the star. Regarded as massive analogues to the Main Asteroid or Kuiper Belts in the Solar System, these often young dust-rich disks comprise second-generation dust created by disruptive collisions of planetes- imals and the decay products of asteroids and comets. Of the dozen or so directly imaged planets to date many share a distinctive characteristic: they reside in stellar systems known to also possess circumstellar dust. High-angular resolution characterization of debris disks, whose morphology is thought to be affected by embedded orbiting planets, offers an important offers an important pathway for probing planet-disk interaction. I used polarimetric differential imaging (PDI) to characterize debris disks at 0.042” reso- lution with the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) on the Gemini South 8 m telescope. For the first project, I determined the photometric response of polarimetric observations with the GPI lead- ing to the flux calibration of the instrument. In my second and third project, I demonstrated the utility of PDI with radiative transfer modeling tools to characterize the morphology and grain properties of two debris disks at solar system scales. I reported the first PDI observations of the inner Kuiper Belt-analog HD 141569A disk and revealed the presence of an spiral arm. I also determined the existence of a putative unseen innermost disk inwards of 30 AU around HD 141569A through the analysis of the predicted thermal emission of the disk. Finally, I mapped the structure of the 82 AU ring-shaped HD 157587 debris disk. Our multi-wavelength high-contrast polarimetry reveals that even this unusually old (> 1 billion years) debris disk contains short-lived small grains: evidence of an active collisional cascade in this system. The combined power of extreme contrast (∼ 1 : 1; 000; 000 at 1 arc second), high angular resolu- tion, and differential polarimetry with the Gemini Planet Imager reveals previously unseen disk structures, and is of great value for studying dynamically perturbed disks. Keywords: debris disks, polarimetry, direct imaging i Co-Authorship Statement This Thesis is comprised of three independent manuscripts (Sections 2, 3, and 4). I am second author on the first manuscript, and the lead author on the latter two. The first has been published as Hung, Bruzzone et al. (2016, SPIE, 9908, 99083A), the second has been submitted and already been peer-reviewed for the Astronomical Journal, and the third is to be submitted. The first manuscript presents a combined study of two independent calibrations of the flux response of the Gemini Planet Imager in polarimetry mode: one by lead-author Li-Wei Hung at UCLA, and one by me at UWO. My own write-up of the calibration was distributed as an internal report to the Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey (GPIES) collaboration, and is reproduced in full in Appendix A. Regarding the published version of the calibration in Hung, Bruzzone et al. (2016), my contribution included: 1. the creation and testing of a Gemini Planet Imager Data Reduction Pipeline (GPI DRP) primitive (a script) to perform aperture photometry on the auxiliary GPI satellite spots faint off-axis images of the bright occulted on-axis star designed for photometric and astrometric calibration; 2. use of the primitive to calibrate the polarimetric flux response of GPI to the previously established spectroscopic response; 3. measurement of the overall instrument throughput; 4. assessing the variations of the GPI satellite spot brightness for the purpose of photometric calibration. I designed the primitive to comply with the coding structure of the GPI DRP. The definition of the apertures (size and location) was written by Jason Wang with hard-coded values such as position, separation and size. My work started writing a script that would instead derive such values from design principles of the instrument, such as the grid spacing of the apodizer in H band. The script allowed to consistently perform aperture photometry within the DRP. My ii study showed for the first time the biases between the two available flux extraction algorithms in polarimetry mode. This highlighted how extraction algorithms impacted flux measurements and the relative calibration with spectroscopy mode. I also showed the first measurement of instrument throughput and provided a comprehensive test of satellite spot flux variability in polarimetry mode. Other features of the script I wrote were adapted as stand-alone scripts within the DRP. As example, a script to perform companion photometry in polarimetry mode. This was used to compute satellite:companion flux rations. Sections 2.0, parts of Section 3.2 and 3.3, and Section 4 in that paper (Chapters 2.2, 2.2.3, 2.3.3 and 2.4 in this Thesis) are based on my work. My contribution to the GPI DRP and the GPI polarimetry mode calibration is acknowl- edged through co-authorship on 7 other peer-reviewed papers from the GPIES collaboration. The following authors contributed to Chapter 1: Stanimir Metchev provided comments. The following authors contributed to Chapter 2: Jason Wang wrote the satellite spot aperture shapes. Maxwell Millar-Blanchaer provided the initial setup and substantial guidance explain- ing polarimetric observations with GPI in detail. M. M-B. also tested versions of the code and helped troubleshoot issues with data reduction. Li-Wei Hung derived the photometry calibra- tion into Jy. Stanimir Metchev provided guidance throughout the duration of the project. The following authors contributed to Chapter 3: Stanimir Metchev provided extensive guidance and insightful comments throughout the duration of the project. Gaspard Duchene provided the executable version of MCFOST and the SED fitting code. G.D. also provided insightful discussions that enriched the project. Maxwell Millar-Blanchaer provided comments and sug- gestions. Jason Wang wrote the pyKLIP module. James Graham revised an earlier manuscript and provided insightful comments. The following authors contributed to Chapter 4: Stanimir Metchev provided guidance and part of the analysis generating the photometry of the HD 157587 disk. Gaspard Duchene pro- vided the executable version of MCFOST. Thomas Esposito provided guidance setting up the Markov-Chain Monte Carlo code with MCFOST and Schuyler Wolf wrote the python module iii that generates MCFOST files. Pauline Arriaga provided guidance with pyKLIP+ADI. Jason Wang and Eric Nielsen provided comments on the astrometry of the point-source candidates. The following authors contributed to Chapter 5: Stanimir Metchev provided comments. iv Acknowledgments I would like to thank my supervisor, Prof. Stanimir Metchev for his patience and much guidance throughout the past four years. The constant pressure and high expectations made me understand the sort of caliber required to become a much better scientist. I would also want to thank fellow members of the GPI team: Maxwell Millar-Blanchaer, Gaspard Duchene, Jason Wang, Schuyler Wolff, Thomas Esposito and Pauline Arriaga for their help. I would like to extend my gratitude to my friends at UWO, past and current office-mates: Quanzhi Ye, Robert Weryk, Edward Stokan, Dilini Subasingue, Maryam Tabeshian, Richard Bloch, Megan Tannock and Paulo Miles-Paez. I want to thank the team at Saint Joseph’s Diabetes Support Program for their support these past three years. Thanks to Dr. Beth Urek for her advice and long discussions. Last but not least, this would have not been possible without the love of my life, Carolina, who encouraged me to keep going forward, gracias mi vida. v Para mam´a,mi viejo y Mauri. vi Contents Certificate of Examinationi Abstract i Co-Authorship Statement ii List of Figures xii List of Tables xv List of Appendices xvi List of Abbreviations and Symbols xvi 1 Background Material1 1.1 Introduction.................................... 1 1.2 Unresolved Observations of Debris Disks .................... 4 Fundamental Parameters......................... 4 Estimates versus Observations...................... 7 1.3 Evolution of Debris Disks............................. 7 1.3.1 From Protoplanetary Disks to Debris Disks ............... 7 1.3.2 Dust from Planet Formation Processes.................. 10 1.4 Disk Morphologies and the Use