Latest results with LBTI's Vortex coronagraph: real-time tip/tilt sensing, new data reduction algorithms, and YSO observations

Vortex coronagraphs are among the most promising solutions to perform high contrast imaging at small angular separations from bright stars. They enhance the dynamic range at very small inner working angle (down to the diffraction limit of the telescope) and provide a clear 360 degree discovery space for high-contrast direct imaging of exoplanets. In 2013, we installed and commissioned an L-band coronagraph in LBTI/LMIRCam and obtained outstanding images of the four planets around HR8799 during the first hours on sky. In this presentation, we will present the results of the latest data reduction performed with the VIP software that is developed at the University of Liège and that features state-of-the-art image processing algorithms inherited from the field of background subtraction in computer vision (including machine learning algorithms and low rank modeling algorithms). We will also present the results obtained with the second L- and M-band coronagraph that was recently installed in LMIRCam to enable binocular Vortex observations. During the first observations (October 2016), we tested and validated a new real-time post-coronagraphic tip-tilt sensing technique (called QACITS) to quickly align each beam on the center of their respective Vortex coronagraph and obtained observations of a young star showing disk features near the resolution limit of each aperture. Finally, we will present some exciting prospects for the Vortex coronagraph that will be installed on VISIR and ELT/METIS.