Studying hot exozodiacal dust with near-infrared interferometry

[en] Since our first detection of a resolved near-infrared emission around the main sequence star Vega, which we identified as the signature of hot dust grains close to the sublimation limit, we have been systematically searching for similar signatures around a magnitude-limited sample of nearby main sequence stars with the FLUOR instrument at the CHARA array. About 40 targets with spectral types ranging from A to K have been observed within the last 6 years, leading to first statistical trends on the occurence of the bright exozodi phenomenon as a function of spectral type. Our target sample is balanced between stars known to harbour cold dust populations from space-based missions (e.g., Spitzer, Herschel) and stars without cold dust, so that the occurence of abundant hot dust can also be correlated with the presence of large reservoirs of cold planetesimals. In this paper, we present preliminary conclusions from the CHARA/FLUOR survey. We also discuss the first results obtained in 2011/2012 with the new PIONIER visiting instrument at the VLTI, which is now used to extend our survey sample to the Southern hemisphere and to fainter targets. A first measurement of the exozodi/star flux ratio as a function of wavelength within the H band is presented, thanks to the low spectral resolution capability of PIONIER. Finally, we also briefly discuss our plans for extending the survey to fainter targets in the Northern hemisphere with an upgraded version of the FLUOR beam combiner.

Disciplines :

Space science, astronomy & astrophysics

Author, co-author :

Absil, Olivier ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Astroph. extragalactique et observations spatiales (AEOS)

Language :

English

Title :

Studying hot exozodiacal dust with near-infrared interferometry

Publication date :

July 2012

Event name :

SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012

Event organizer :

SPIE

Event place :

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Event date :

30/6/2012 - 6/7/2012

Audience :

International

Main work title :

Optical and Infrared Interferometry III

Editor :

Delplancke, F

Rajagopal, J

Malbet, F

Publisher :

SPIE, Bellingham, United States - Washington

Collection name :

Proceedings of the SPIE, volume 8445

Available on ORBi :

since 26 September 2012

Statistics

Number of views

53 (11 by ULiège)

Number of downloads

97 (4 by ULiège)

More statistics

Scopus citations^®

Scopus citations^®
without self-citations

Bibliography

Lisse, C. M., Wyatt, M. C., Chen, C. H., Morlok, A., Watson, D. M., Manoj, P., Sheehan, P., Currie, T. M., Thebault, P., and Sitko, M. L., "Spitzer Evidence for a Late-heavy Bombardment and the Formation of Ureilites in η Corvi at ∼1 Gyr," ApJ 747, 93 (Mar. 2012).
Absil, O., di Folco, E., Mérand, A., Augereau, J.-C., Coudé du Foresto, V., Aufdenberg, J. P., Kervella, P., Ridgway, S. T., Berger, D. H., ten Brummelaar, T. A., Sturmann, J., Sturmann, L., Turner, N. H., and McAlister, H. A., "Circumstellar material in the Vega inner system revealed by CHARA/FLUOR," A&A 452, 237-244 (June 2006).
di Folco, E., Absil, O., Augereau, J.-C., Mérand, A., Coudé du Foresto, V., Thévenin, F., Defrère, D., Kervella, P., ten Brummelaar, T. A., McAlister, H. A., Ridgway, S. T., Sturmann, J., Sturmann, L., and Turner, N. H., "A near-infrared interferometric survey of debris disk stars. I. Probing the hot dust content around ε Eridani and τ Ceti with CHARA/FLUOR," A&A 475, 243-250 (Nov. 2007).
Absil, O., di Folco, E., Mérand, A., Augereau, J.-C., Coudé du Foresto, V., Defrère, D., Kervella, P., Aufdenberg, J. P., Desort, M., Ehrenreich, D., Lagrange, A.-M., Montagnier, G., Olofsson, J., ten Brummelaar, T. A., McAlister, H. A., Sturmann, J., Sturmann, L., and Turner, N. H., "A near-infrared interferometric survey of debris disc stars. II. CHARA/FLUOR observations of six early-type dwarfs," A&A 487, 1041-1054 (Sept. 2008).
Akeson, R. L., Ciardi, D. R., Millan-Gabet, R., Merand, A., Folco, E. D., Monnier, J. D., Beichman, C. A., Absil, O., Aufdenberg, J., McAlister, H., Brummelaar, T. t., Sturmann, J., Sturmann, L., and Turner, N., "Dust in the inner regions of debris disks around a stars," ApJ 691, 1896-1908 (Feb. 2009).
Absil, O., Mennesson, B., Le Bouquin, J.-B., Di Folco, E., Kervella, P., and Augereau, J.-C., "An Interferometric Study of the Fomalhaut Inner Debris Disk. I. Near-Infrared Detection of Hot Dust with VLTI/VINCI," ApJ 704, 150-160 (Oct. 2009).
Defrère, D., Absil, O., Augereau, J.-C., di Folco, E., Berger, J.-P., Coudé Du Foresto, V., Kervella, P., Le Bouquin, J.-B., Lebreton, J., Millan-Gabet, R., Monnier, J. D., Olofsson, J., and Traub, W., "Hot exozodiacal dust resolved around Vega with IOTA/IONIC," A&A 534, A5 (Oct. 2011).
Kervella, P., Thévenin, F., Di Folco, E., and Ségransan, D., "The angular sizes of dwarf stars and subgiants. Surface brightness relations calibrated by interferometry," A&A 426, 297-307 (Oct. 2004).
Bordé, P., Coudé du Foresto, V., Chagnon, G., and Perrin, G., "A catalogue of calibrator stars for long baseline stellar interferometry," A&A 393, 183-193 (Oct. 2002).
Mérand, A., Bordé, P., and Coudé du Foresto, V., "A catalog of bright calibrator stars for 200-m baseline near-infrared stellar interferometry," A&A 433, 1155-1162 (Apr. 2005).
Coudé du Foresto, V., Ridgway, S., and Mariotti, J.-M., "Deriving object visibilities from interferograms obtained with a fiber stellar interferometer," A&AS 121, 379-392 (Feb. 1997).
Kervella, P., Ségransan, D., and Coudé du Foresto, V., "Data reduction methods for single-mode optical interferometry. Application to the VLTI two-telescopes beam combiner VINCI," A&A 425, 1161-1174 (Oct. 2004).
Mérand, A., Coudé du Foresto, V., Kellerer, A., ten Brummelaar, T., Reess, J.-M., and Ziegler, D., "CHARA/FLUOR updates and performance," in [Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Conference Series], Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Conference Series 6268 (July 2006).
Kervella, P., Thévenin, F., Ségransan, D., Berthomieu, G., Lopez, B., Morel, P., and Provost, J., "The diameters of alpha Centauri A and B. A comparison of the asteroseismic and VINCI/VLTI views," A&A 404, 1087-1097 (June 2003).
Aufdenberg, J. P., Mérand, A., Coudé du Foresto, V., Absil, O., Di Folco, E., Kervella, P., Ridgway, S. T., Berger, D. H., ten Brummelaar, T. A., McAlister, H. A., Sturmann, J., Sturmann, L., and Turner, N. H., "First Results from the CHARA Array. VII. Long-Baseline Interferometric Measurements of Vega Consistent with a Pole-On, Rapidly Rotating Star," ApJ 645, 664-675 (July 2006).
Claret, A., "A new non-linear limb-darkening law for LTE stellar atmosphere models. Calculations for -5.0 <= log[M/H] <= +1, 2000 K <= Teff <= 50000 K at several surface gravities," A&A 363, 1081-1190 (Nov. 2000).
Markwardt, C. B., "Non-linear Least-squares Fitting in IDL with MPFIT," in [Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XVIII], Bohlender, D. A., Durand, D., and Dowler, P., eds., Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series 411, 251 (Sept. 2009).
Eiroa, C., Fedele, D., Maldonado, J., Gonzalez-García, B. M., Rodmann, J., Heras, A. M., Pilbratt, G. L., Augereau, J.-C., Mora, A., Montesinos, B., and et al., "Cold DUst around NEarby Stars (DUNES). First results. A resolved exo-Kuiper belt around the solar-like star ζ2 Ret," A&A 518, L131 (July 2010).
Matthews, B. C., Sibthorpe, B., Kennedy, G., Phillips, N., Churcher, L., Duchêne, G., Greaves, J. S., Lestrade, J.-F., Moro-Martin, A., Wyatt, M. C., and et al., "Resolving debris discs in the far-infrared: Early highlights from the DEBRIS survey," A&A 518, L135 (July 2010).
Le Bouquin, J.-B., Berger, J.-P., Zins, G., Lazareff, B., Jocou, L., Kern, P., Millan-Gabet, R., Traub, W., Haguenauer, P., Absil, O., and et al., "PIONIER: a status report," in [Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Conference Series], Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Conference Series 8445 (July 2012).