Dr. Lindsay Marion Profile

Dr. Lindsay Marion

at Liège Univ

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Publications (3)

PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | July 24, 2018

The HOSTS survey for exo-zodiacal dust: preliminary results and future prospects

Proc. SPIE. 10698, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2018: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave

KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Astronomy, Statistical analysis, Stars, Calibration, Interferometry, Exoplanets, Space telescopes, Planets, Nulling interferometry

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The presence of large amounts of dust in the habitable zones of nearby stars is a significant obstacle for future exo-Earth imaging missions. We executed the HOSTS (Hunt for Observable Signatures of Terrestrial Systems) survey to determine the typical amount of such exozodiacal dust around a sample of nearby main sequence stars. The majority of the data have been analyzed and we present here an update of our ongoing work. Nulling interferometry in N band was used to suppress the bright stellar light and to detect faint, extended circumstellar dust emission. We present an overview of the latest results from our ongoing work. We find seven new N band excesses in addition to the high confidence confirmation of three that were previously known. We find the first detections around Sun-like stars and around stars without previously known circumstellar dust. Our overall detection rate is 23%. The inferred occurrence rate is comparable for early type and Sun-like stars, but decreases from 71^{+11 -20}% for stars with previously detected mid- to far-infrared excess to 11^{+9 -4}% for stars without such excess, confirming earlier results at high confidence. For completed observations on individual stars, our sensitivity is five to ten times better than previous results. Assuming a lognormal luminosity function of the dust, we find upper limits on the median dust level around all stars without previously known mid to far infrared excess of 11.5 zodis at 95% confidence level. The corresponding upper limit for Sun-like stars is 16 zodis. An LBTI vetted target list of Sun-like stars for exo-Earth imaging would have a corresponding limit of 7.5 zodis. We provide important new insights into the occurrence rate and typical levels of habitable zone dust around main sequence stars. Exploiting the full range of capabilities of the LBTI provides a critical opportunity for the detailed characterization of a sample of exozodiacal dust disks to understand the origin, distribution, and properties of the dust.

PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | August 4, 2016

Making high-accuracy null depth measurements for the LBTI exozodi survey

Proc. SPIE. 9907, Optical and Infrared Interferometry and Imaging V

KEYWORDS: Mid-IR, Telescopes, Astronomy, Stars, Sensors, Calibration, Error analysis, Interferometry, Signal detection, Visibility

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | July 24, 2014

Unveiling new stellar companions from the PIONIER exozodi survey

Proc. SPIE. 9146, Optical and Infrared Interferometry IV

KEYWORDS: Target detection, Telescopes, Lithium, Stars, Data modeling, Interferometry, Infrared radiation, Infrared signatures, Binary data, Visibility

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The main goal of the EXOZODI survey is to detect and characterize circumstellar dust and to propose the first statistical study of exozodiacal disks in the near-infrared using telescopes in both hemispheres (VLTI and CHARA). For this purpose, Ertel et al. have conducted in 2012 a survey of nearby main sequence stars with VLTI/PIONIER to search for the presence of circumstellar dust. This survey, carried out during 12 nights, comprises about 100 stars. For each star, we obtained typically three OBs and we searched for circumstellar emission based on the measurement of squared visibilities at short baselines. A drop in the measured visibilities with respect to the expected photospheric visibility indicates the presence of resolved emission around the target star. It is however generally not possible to conclude on the morphology of the detected emission based solely on the squared visibilities. Here, we focus on closure phases to search systematically for faint companions around the whole sample. Indeed, to derive robust statistics on the occurrence rate of bright exozodiacal disks, we need to discriminate between companions and disks. For this reason, the main goal of this paper is to discriminate between circumstellar disks (which show no closure phase provided that they are point-symmetric) and faint companions (point-like sources, creating non-zero closure phases). We also aim to reveal new companions that do not necessarily produce a significant signature in the squared visibilities, as the signature of the companion may show up more prominently in the closure phases. In this process, we reveal four new stellar companions with contrasts ranging from 2% to 95% (i.e., up to near-equal flux binaries). We also tentatively detect faint companions around one other target that will require follow-up observations to be confirmed or infirmed. We discuss the implications of these discoveries on the results of the exozodi survey.

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