17–21 Mar 2019
Sunstar Hotel, Grindelwald, Switzerland
Europe/Zurich timezone

Contribution List

75 out of 75 displayed
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  1. Dr Nadège Meunier (University of Grenoble)
    18/03/2019, 09:00
    Stellar signals
    Oral

    The first part of this review will be devoted to the different stellar processes leading to spurious radial velocities. They are due to magnetic activity (spots, plages, and flares to a lesser extent) and to flows at various scales (from granulation to meridional circulation), or a combination of both (inhibition of the convective blueshift in plages). The second part of the talk will review ...

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  2. Ms Sepideh Sadegi (Landessternwarte/MPIA Heidelberg)
    18/03/2019, 09:30
    Stellar signals
    Oral

    Understanding the effect of stellar activity on the measured radial velocity (RV) is essential for the reliable detection of exoplanets around stars. It becomes even more vital when we are searching for low-mass planets around M-dwarfs, which are known to be particularly affected by active regions. Photospheric activity features in M-dwarfs stem from the depth of the convective layers and...

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  3. Annelies Mortier (University of Cambridge)
    18/03/2019, 09:50
    Stellar signals
    Oral

    Distinguishing between a signal induced by stellar activity or a planet is the main challenge in radial velocity (RV) searches for low-mass exoplanets these days. Even when the presence of a transiting planet and hence its period are known, stellar activity is often the main barrier in nailing down the correct amplitude of the planetary signal. Observing the Sun-as-a-star provides a unique...

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  4. Xavier Dumusque (Université de Genève)
    18/03/2019, 10:10
    Stellar signals
    Oral
  5. Prof. Andreas Quirrenbach (Landessternwarte, ZAH, U Heidelberg)
    18/03/2019, 11:00
    Stellar signals
    Oral

    It is quite common to find periodic signals in time series of precise radial velocities that cannot unambiguously be attributed either to a planetary companion or to intrinsic variability of the star. In such cases, plausibility criteria (e.g., fit quality, expected “typical” RV jitter, dynamical stability) and different types of additional information (e.g., stability of line profiles or line...

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  6. Mr Ryan Cloutier
    18/03/2019, 11:20
    Stellar signals
    Oral

    The nearby mid-M dwarf K2-18 hosts a known transiting super-Earth. The so-called K2-18b orbits close to the inner edge of the habitable zone making it an interesting target for future atmospheric characterization of an M dwarf planet receiving Earth-like insolation. In 2017, the HARPS follow-up campaign to characterize the mass of K2-18b revealed a strong periodic signal at $\sim 9$ days that...

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  7. Jinglin Zhao (UNSW)
    18/03/2019, 11:40
    Stellar signals
    Oral

    We've been developping a new technique - FourIEr $\textit{phase}$ SpecTrum Analysis ($\mathit{\Phi}$ESTA or FIESTA) - that studies the spectral line profile variability in the Fourier space. It enables us to distinguish a line deformation from a line shift and provides the possibility to correct jitter. I will briefly lay out the theories and demonstrate its application in two example stars:...

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  8. 18/03/2019, 12:00
    Stellar signals
    Oral
  9. Prof. Cullen Blake (University of Pennsylvania)
    18/03/2019, 16:30
    Telluric contamination
    Oral
  10. Dr Solene Ulmer-Moll (IA/U. Porto)
    18/03/2019, 17:00
    Telluric contamination
    Oral

    Stellar spectra are polluted with the absorption lines produced by the Earth's atmosphere. Earlier modeling work showed that a perfect telluric correction increases the radial velocity precision compared to masking the regions affected by telluric absorption. But what is the case for real observations? With CARMENES near-infrared spectra, I will show the impact of the telluric correction on...

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  11. Ms Natasha Latouf (George Mason University)
    18/03/2019, 17:20
    Telluric contamination
    Oral

    We performed simulations using the Kurucz solar spectrum and TAPAS generated telluric spectra across a year with varying atmospheric conditions to quantify the effects of telluric contamination in PRVs. We chose the wavelength range from 350nm to 2.5 micron and assumed a spectral resolution of R=120,000 with no photon noise. We assumed perfectly known spectral PSF, wavelength solution, and...

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  12. Kyle Kaplan (The University of Arizona)
    18/03/2019, 17:40
    Telluric contamination
    Oral

    Emission and absorption from the Earth’s atmosphere at infrared and optical wavelengths introduces a significant source of contamination for ground based precision RV spectroscopy. These telluric features not only add statistical noise and remove flux from our spectra, but introduce additional uncertainty because some of the telluric line strengths themselves are highly variable and not known...

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  13. Dr Sam Halverson (MIT)
    19/03/2019, 09:00
    Instrument and calibration challenges
    Oral
  14. Dr Jim Beletic (Teledyne Imaging Sensors)
    19/03/2019, 09:30
    Instrument and calibration challenges
    Oral
  15. Mrs Ewelina Obrzud (Department of Astronomy, University of Geneva)
    19/03/2019, 10:00
    Instrument and calibration challenges
    Oral

    Laser frequency combs (LFCs) comprising thousands of evenly spaced laser lines with absolutely and precisely known optical frequencies can meet the calibration requirements for extreme precision in radial velocity measurements.

    We present a LFC for accurate and precise spectrograph calibration in the near-infrared. The LFC is based on electro-optic modulation of a continuous-wave laser and...

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  16. Prof. Christian Schwab (Macquarie University)
    19/03/2019, 10:15
    Instrument and calibration challenges
    Oral

    Precise wavelength calibration is a persistent problem for highest precision Doppler spectroscopy. The ideal calibrator provides an extremely stable spectrum of equidistant, narrow lines over a wide bandwidth, is reliable over timescales of years, and simple to operate. Unlike traditional hollow cathode lamps, etalons provide an engineered spectrum with adjustable line distance and width, and...

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  17. Dr João Faria (Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences, University of Porto)
    19/03/2019, 11:00
    Computational and statistical methods
    Oral

    Estimating precise radial velocities due to orbiting exoplanets in the presence of stellar activity is a challenging statistical problem. As instrumentation continues to improve, allowing for the detection of sub meter-per-second shifts, the effect of stellar activity becomes more problematic because the stellar activity can cause distortions in the spectra that mimic the RV of an orbiting...

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  18. João Camacho (Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço)
    19/03/2019, 11:30
    Computational and statistical methods
    Oral

    Since the discovery of the first extra-solar planet in 1995, Doppler spectroscopy proved to be one of the most successful methods in the search of exoplanets. With new high precision instruments like ESPRESSO and new data analysis methods, it will be possible to detect Earth-like planets on Sun-like stars with similar orbital parameters of Earth. Unfortunately, the search for exoplanets comes...

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  19. Mr Nathan Hara (Université de Genève)
    19/03/2019, 11:50
    Computational and statistical methods
    Oral

    The eccentricity of a planet is a key information on its present dynamics and puts constraints on formation scenarios. However, eccentricity estimates are known to be subject to caution, for instance it has been shown that low eccentricities are on average overestimated. In this talk, we present a comprehensive study of the eccentricity estimation from radial velocity data and give conditions...

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  20. Aida Behmard (Caltech)
    19/03/2019, 12:10
    Computational and statistical methods
    Oral

    The advent of large-scale spectroscopic surveys underscores the need to develop robust techniques for determining stellar properties (“labels”, i.e., physical parameters and elemental abundances). However, traditional spectroscopic methods that utilize stellar models struggle to reproduce cool (<4700 K) stellar atmospheres due to an abundance of unconstrained molecular transitions, making...

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  21. Prof. Mahadevan Suvrath (Penn State Unibversity)
    19/03/2019, 16:30
    Instrument and calibration challenges
    Oral
  22. Dr Bruno Chazelas (University of Geneva)
    19/03/2019, 17:00
    Instrument and calibration challenges
    Oral
  23. Dr Sagi Ben-Ami (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory)
    19/03/2019, 17:30

    With new missions and surveys such as TESS and SPECULOUS, the discovery of the first transiting, potentially earth-like planets is just around the corner. Once discovered, those planets will immediately become the focus of observations in search of atmospheric biomarkers such as H2O, CH4, O3, and O2. Recent studies suggest the latter will be best detected from the ground. Here we present a...

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  24. Chas Beichman
    19/03/2019, 17:45
    Instrument and calibration challenges
    Oral

    Advances in Adaptive Optics have made it possible to develop a new generation of very high spectral resolution spectrometers R~(100,000-150,000) operating in the deep red and near-IR on large telescopes. These instruments can be used both for precision radial velocity (PRV) measurements when coupled with high precision calibration sources, direct spectroscopy of exoplanets, as well as for a...

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  25. Prof. Francesco Pepe
    20/03/2019, 08:15
    Instruments in VIS
    Oral
  26. Ms Lily Zhao
    20/03/2019, 08:30
    Instruments in VIS
    Oral
  27. Prof. Rob Wittenmyer (University of Southern Queensland)
    20/03/2019, 08:45
    Instruments in VIS
    Oral

    NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will identify
    thousands of planets orbiting nearby bright stars in a two-year survey
    beginning in the Southern sky. MINERVA-Australis at USQ's Mount Kent
    Observatory is the only southern hemisphere precise radial velocity
    facility wholly dedicated to follow-up of TESS planets. Mass
    measurements of these planets are critically necessary...

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  28. Prof. Chris Tinney (UNSW Sydney)
    20/03/2019, 09:00
    Instruments in VIS
    Oral

    Veloce is a new precision Doppler spectrograph for the 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope sited on Siding Spring Observatory in Australia. Cost considerations for an instrument with a total budget of A$5.4m mean that Veloce's design philosophy is one of "just enough" stabilisation (i.e. stabilising the spectrograph in pressure and temperature so that changes over time will be small and...

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  29. Prof. Klaus Strassmeier (AIP)
    20/03/2019, 09:15
    Instruments in VIS
    Oral

    We present recent results from the latest addition to the spectrograph zoo: PEPSI, the new bench-mounted fiber-fed and stabilized “Potsdam Echelle Polarimetric and Spectroscopic Instrument” for the 11.8m Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). Besides the LBT the instrument is also fiber linked to a disk-integration solar telescope and the Vatican Observatory's 1.8m VATT. I will introduce PEPSI and...

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  30. Dr Paul Robertson
    20/03/2019, 09:30
    Instruments in VIS
    Oral
  31. Dr Ignasi Ribas (ICE/CSIC & IEEC)
    20/03/2019, 10:15
    Instruments in nIR
    Oral

    The CARMENES high-precision spectrometer started operations in January 1, 2016 at the 3.5-m telescope of the Calar Alto Observatory. Since then, the CARMENES consortium is carrying out a 750-night survey searching for exoplanets around M dwarf stars, preferably in their habitable zones, using the radial velocity technique. CARMENES has the unique capability of providing continuous...

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  32. Dr Takayuki KOTANI (ABC/NAOJ)
    20/03/2019, 10:30
    Instruments in nIR
    Oral

    The Infrared Doppler (IRD) instrument is a fiber-fed high-resolution near-infrared spectrometer for the Subaru 8.2-m telescope covering the Y-, J-, and H-bands simultaneously with a spectral resolution of ~70,000. It aims at achieving measurement precision of 1-2 m/s in radial velocity (RV) with a very stable spectrograph and an original laser frequency comb. The most effective...

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  33. Dr Joe Ninan
    20/03/2019, 10:45
    Instruments in nIR
    Oral
  34. François Bouchy
    20/03/2019, 11:00
    Instruments in nIR
    Oral

    The near-infrared spectropolarimeter SPIRou is now in operation on the 3.6-m Canada-France-Hawaii telescope and recently started its survey. Thanks to its unique combination of a wide simultaneous spectral domain (0.98-2.35 μm, YJHK bands), a high throughput (>10% in H and K bands), a resolving power of 70’000, a radial-velocity precision close to 2 m/s, and polarimetric capabilities, SPIRou...

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  35. Dr Ilaria Carleo
    20/03/2019, 11:15
    Instruments in nIR
    Oral

    The NIR high resolution spectrograph GIANO, working in the wavelength range from 0.97 to 2.45 microns at a resolution of 50,000, was installed and commissioned at the Nasmyth-A focal station of the TNG in 2014. Through the GIARPS project, aimed to the simultaneous use of GIANO and HARPS-N spectrographs, GIANO was moved to the Nasmyth-B (re-naming the instrument GIANO-B) and modified in its...

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  36. Dr Jonathan Crass (University of Notre Dame)
    20/03/2019, 11:30
    Instruments in nIR
    Oral

    iLocater is a next-generation precision radial velocity spectrograph under development for the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). The instrument has three major subsystems which are currently undergoing simultaneous development: a single-mode fiber fed high-resolution (R~150,000-240,000) NIR echelle spectrograph, an adaptive optics fed fiber-injection system, and a fabry-perot etalon based...

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  37. Prof. Peter Plavchan (George Mason University)
    20/03/2019, 11:45
    Instruments in nIR
    Oral

    We present our radial-velocities (RVs) with the iSHELL spectrograph at the NASA Infrared Telescope facility. Replacing the 25 year old CSHELL instrument, iSHELL offers improvements in spectral grasp (~40x), resolution (70,000 versus 46,000), throughput, optics, and detector characteristics. Our primary goal with iSHELL is to characterize the precise radial-velocity performance of the methane...

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  38. Prof. Bouchy François
    21/03/2019, 09:00
    Future instruments
    Oral

    The Near-InfraRed Planet Searcher (NIRPS) is a new ultra-stable near-infrared (YJH) spectrograph that will be installed on ESO 3.6-m Telescope in La Silla, Chile in begining 2020. Covering YJH bands with a spectral resolution of 100’000, NIRPS is part of a new generation of adaptive optics fiber-fed spectrographs. NIRPS will use a 0.4-arcsecond multi-mode fiber, half that required for a...

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  39. Dr Sam Thompson
    21/03/2019, 09:15
    Future instruments
    Oral
  40. Dr Andrew Szentgyorgyi (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory)
    21/03/2019, 09:30
    Future instruments
    Oral

    The GMT-Consortium Large Earth Finder (G-CLEF), is currently scheduled to be the first PRV-capable instrument on an ELT. G-CLEF embraces many design paradigms of earlier PRV instruments, especially the HARPSs. However, the G-CLEF design team is exploiting several novel technologies to deliver an exceptionally stable and calibratable spectrograph. In this talk, we provide an overview of the...

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  41. Dr Julian Stuermer
    21/03/2019, 09:45
    Future instruments
    Oral

    Exoplanet surveys have recently progressed to the point of discovering small, potentially terrestrial planets orbiting in circumstellar habitable zones. Assessing the true degree of habitability of these worlds requires gaining knowledge of both their bulk and atmospheric properties. In this talk I will summarize the development of MAROON-X, which is a high precision radial velocity...

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  42. Mr Gudmundur Stefansson (Penn State University)
    21/03/2019, 10:00
    Others
    Oral

    Significant progress has been made in recent years in measuring the sky-projected obliquity distribution of early-type planet hosting systems via precise Rossiter-McLaughlin (RM) effect observations. However, currently only two M-dwarf systems, GJ 436 and Kepler-45, have published obliquities—and interestingly GJ 436 is observed to be misaligned. With such a sparse sample, key questions remain...

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  43. João Faria (Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences)
    21/03/2019, 10:15
    Others
    Oral

    As the number of known super-Earths and Neptune-like planets keeps growing, the properties and frequency of such systems start to be revealed. Planet formation models suggest that these low-mass planets, unlike giant planets, should be frequent around stars with low metallicities. But this theoretical prediction still needs to be observationally confirmed.
    I will present the analysis of a...

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  44. Dr Arpita Roy
    21/03/2019, 11:00
    From raw spectra to EPRV: RV pipelines
    Oral
  45. Chad Bender (University of Arizona)
    21/03/2019, 11:30
    From raw spectra to EPRV: RV pipelines
    Oral

    The precision radial velocity community is pushing spectrometer hardware to new and ever more exciting stability levels that support a velocity precision of ~1 m/s in the near-infrared, and sub 50 cm/s in the visible. These developments must be backed by increasingly sophisticated software algorithms and data reduction pipelines that can realize the potential of the new instruments. I will...

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  46. Benjamin Fulton (California Institute of Technology)
    21/03/2019, 11:50
    From raw spectra to EPRV: RV pipelines
    Oral

    An iodine cell placed in the light path of a high-resolution spectrograph can
    act as a simultaneous wavelength and point-spread-function fiducial which
    enables precise radial velocities to be extracted from un-stabilized or
    slit-fed spectrographs. This technique enabled the detection and
    characterization of many of the first known exoplanets and played a significant
    role in establishing the...

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  47. Dr Vinesh Maguire-Rajpaul (University of Cambridge)
    21/03/2019, 12:10
    From raw spectra to EPRV: RV pipelines
    Oral

    Thanks to a number of technical developments, the precision of RV surveys has been steadily improving. While the spectrographs of fifty years ago yielded RVs with errors in excess of 1 km/s, today's state-of-the-art stabilised spectrographs boast 10 cm/s precisions. Yet very little has changed in the way individual RVs are actually extracted from observed spectra: i.e., cross correlating...

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  48. Dr Eric Mamajek (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
    21/03/2019, 16:30
    Oral
  49. Dr Blind Nicolas (Astronomy Department of the University of Geneva)
    Instrument and calibration challenges
    Poster
  50. Mrs Andreea Ioana Gornea (DTU Space, National Space Institute, Denmark)
    Error budget in EPRV
    Poster
  51. Melissa Hobson (Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille)
    Instrument and calibration challenges
    Poster

    Abstract: In order to measure stellar radial velocities at high precision, an accurate wavelength solution is of paramount importance. To achieve such a solution, hollow-cathode (HC) lamps have frequently been used (e.g. on HARPS, SOPHIE). By identifying and cross-matching their spectral lines with very precise catalogues, a pixel-wavelength correlation can be generated. However, these...

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  52. Silvia Sabotta (Thüringer Landessternwarte / Thuringian State Observatory)
    Others
    Poster

    CARMENES is a large RV-survey for low-mass planets of M-stars. In contrast to other M-star surveys its main focus are M3-M4V stars.

    One of its aims is to determine the frequency of planets with periods of less than 50 days. Although the survey is still on-going, we have started to develop a method to determine the detection limits for each star. The basic idea is to simulate the RV-signal of...

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  53. François Bouchy
    Instruments in nIR
    Poster

    The Near Infra-Red Planet Searcher (NIRPS) will join HARPS on the 3.6 m ESO telescope in La Silla, Chile in the summer of 2019. The new NIR arm will operate in the Y, J and H bands (973.79 to 1808.53 nm) with an AO-assisted guiding camera. Built with the specific goal of characterising exoplanets around M-dwarfs and achieving 1 m/s accuracy in the NIR, NIRPS will play an important role...

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  54. Blaise Kuo Tiong (Macquarie University)
    Instruments in nIR
    Poster

    To deliver a radial velocity instrument capable of extreme precision requires careful design with attention to the interplay of optical, mechanical and thermal design choices. Ideally, an instrument starts with a spectrograph of sufficient resolution and an intrinsic stability that leads to optimal precision over months or years. For a demonstrator instrument developed at Macquarie University,...

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  55. Peter Plavchan (George Mason University)
    Future instruments
    Poster

    We present the science case for a 1.45 meter space telescope to survey the closest, brightest FGKM main sequence stars to search for Habitable Zone (HZ) Earth analogs using the precise radial velocity (PRV) technique at a precision of 1-10 cm/s. Our baseline instrument concept uses three diffraction-limited spectrographs operating in the 0.3-0.4, 0.4-0.9, and 0.9-2.4 microns spectral regions...

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  56. Julian Stuermer (University of Chicago)
    From raw spectra to EPRV: RV pipelines
    Poster

    We present the software package Echelle++, an open-source C++ code to simulate realistic raw spectra based on the Zemax model of any spectrograph, with a particular emphasis on cross-dispersed Échelle spectrographs.
    Echelle++ generates realistic spectra of astronomical and calibration sources, with accurate representation of optical aberrations, the shape of the point-spread function,...

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  57. Bradford Holden (University of California Observatories)
    Error budget in EPRV
    Poster

    We have analyzed four years of Automated Planet Finder (APF) data to understand the error sources in the measured radial velocities. Our approach combines two data sets, long term measurements on a few standard stars and an intense campaign observing simultaneously observing two stars with both the APF and the PFS on Magellan. We find that, despite the strong similarities between the APF's...

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  58. David Montes (UCM)
    Stellar signals
    Poster

    In this contribution we use visible and near-infrared CARMENES spectra of M dwarfs to search for chromospheric activity-sensitive spectral lines in addition to the well known NaI D1, D2 HeI D3, H_alpha and CaII IRT lines, HeI 10830 AA, P_gamma and P_beta lines. To identify lines with a significant chromospheric contribution we have used the spectral subtraction technique, that is by...

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  59. Dr Steven Gibson (UC Berkeley)
    Instruments in VIS
    Poster

    KPF is a fiber-fed, high-resolution, high-stability spectrometer in development for the W.M. Keck Observatory. The instrument is designed to characterize exoplanets via Doppler spectroscopy with a single measurement precision of 0.5 m/s or better, however its resolution and stability will enable a wide variety of other astrophysical observations. KPF will have a resolving power of > 80,000,...

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  60. Dr Tilo Steinmetz (Menlo Systems GmbH)
    Instrument and calibration challenges
    Poster

    Astronomical laser frequency combs (LFCs) have become invaluable tools for precision astronomical spectroscopy. By serving as extremely stable wavelength references, they are ideal for searching Earth-like extrasolar planets using the radial-velocity method. LFCs generate a regular pattern of sharp emission lines, whose optical frequencies are referenced to an atomic clock. The relative...

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  61. Duncan Wright (University of Southern Queensland)
    Instruments in VIS
    Poster

    MINiature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array (MINERVA) - Australis is a new telescope array and spectrograph at Mt Kent observatory in Australia. It is run by a consortium of US, Australian and Chinese universities and has been operational since 2018 Nov 10. It is made up of five 0.7m CDK 700 telescopes from Planewave (three currently installed and operating) and a high-resolution (R>80000)...

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  62. Mr David Sliski (University of Pennsylvania)
    Instruments in nIR
    Poster

    The discoveries of the Earth-sized exoplanets orbiting Proxima Centauri and Trappist-1 lend further support to the theory that terrestrial planets may be common around low-mass stars. Since low-mass stars are intrinsically faint at optical wavelengths, obtaining the meter-per-second Doppler precision necessary to detect their Earth-sized planetary companions remain a challenge for instruments...

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  63. Scott Diddams (NIST and Univ. of Colorado)
    Instrument and calibration challenges
    Poster

    We describe the laser frequency comb that is now installed and operating as the primary wavelength calibrator for the Habitable Zone Planet Finder (HPF) spectrograph at the 10 m Hobby-Eberly Telescope. The laser frequency comb, with 30 GHz mode spacing, is built around a combination of electro-optic and integrated-photonic technologies to address the challenges of bandwidth, mode spacing, and...

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  64. Dr Christian Schwab (Macquarie University)
    Instrument and calibration challenges
    Poster

    NEID and HPF both were conceived to deliver ground-breaking precision in their wavelength regime. HPF has now been commissioned at the Hobby Eberly Telescope, while NEID is fully integrated and set to be deployed at WIYN in Summer 2019. The instruments both use 2x1 mosaic of the same RGL master grating at R4, with nearly 200mm beam diameter, in a white pupil configuration. The cross dispersion...

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  65. Mr Shubham Kanodia (Pennsylvania State University)
    Error budget in EPRV
    Poster

    NEID is a high resolution (R~100,000) fiber - fed Radial Velocity (RV) spectrograph, that will be commissioned at the 3.5 m WIYN telescope at Kitt Peak, USA. In this presentation, I will discuss the details of the NEID fiber feed, which contains octagonal and circular fibers. I shall discuss and share techniques we used to polish these fibers in custom fused silica pucks, FRD, scrambling and...

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  66. Mr Jacob Luhn (Penn State University)
    Stellar signals
    Poster

    For nearly 20 years, the California Planet Search (CPS) has simultaneously monitored precise radial velocities and chromospheric activity levels of stars from Keck observatory to search for exoplanets. This sample provides a useful set of stars to assess the dependence of RV jitter on various astrophysical processes. We measure astrophysical jitter for ~650 stars in the CPS covering a wide...

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  67. Mr Tobias Feger (Macquarie University)
    Instrument and calibration challenges
    Poster

    Reliable, high precision wavelength calibration is a bottleneck for commissioning a number of the next generation of Doppler spectrographs. We have developed a method to reference a wide bandwidth Etalon to a Rubidium transition to enable long-term stability and precision in the range below 10 cm/s. A key part of the whole instrument is the Etalon assembly itself. We strive to reach maximum...

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  68. Ansgar Reiners (Georg-August Universität Göttingen)
    Error budget in EPRV
    Poster

    Spectroscopic information content and stellar brightness define the fundamental limits for radial velocity (RV) measurements. We summarize the available theoretical and empirical information about RV precision limits and compare the performance between various VIS and NIR instrument designs.

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  69. Mr Dinko Milakovic (ESO)
    Instrument and calibration challenges
    Poster
  70. Lee Rosenthal (California Institute of Technology)
    Computational and statistical methods
    Poster

    We show how to use the Python package RadVel to characterize Keplerian orbits of planetary systems with radial velocity (RV) data. RadVel can model multi-planet, multi-instrument datasets, while incorporating constraints such as transit ephemerides and secondary eclipse times. It includes several built-in Gaussian process kernels for the treatment of stellar activity, and employs MCMC and...

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  71. Mr Saeed Hojjatpanah (Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences University of Porto)
    Poster

    We screened the most suitable G, K and M nearby stars for the detection of Earth-class exoplanets with ESPRESSO. For most of these stars, we investigate the existence of stellar binaries. We derived the activity level using chromospheric activity indexes log(R'HK) and Ha, as well as the projected rotational velocity v sin i. For cases where planet companions are already known we also accessed...

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  72. Patrick Newman (George Mason University)
    Observational strategies
    Poster

    Future direct imaging missions such as WFIRST, HabEx, and LUVOIR aim to catalog and characterize Earth-analogs around nearby stars. The observing strategy and science yield are strongly dependent on the frequency of Earth-like planets, and precursor knowledge of which stars specifically host suitable planetary systems. Ground- or space-based radial velocity surveys can potentially identify...

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  73. Dr Sophia Sulis (Austrian Academy of Science, Space Research Institute)
    Computational and statistical methods
    Poster

    When the noise affecting time series is colored (i.e. frequency dependent) with unknown statistics, a difficulty for the detection of periodic signals is to control the true significance level of the test outcome.

    Recent hydrodynamic simulations, performed in 3 dimensions, are able to generate reliable time series of convection, which is a stochastic colored noise for exoplanet detection. The...

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  74. Cullen Blake (University of Pennsylvania)
    Instrument and calibration challenges
    Poster

    Detecting Earth-mass exoplanets using the Doppler method places
    stringent requirements on detector stability. NEID is a new Doppler
    spectrometer in development for the WIYN 3.5-m telescope at Kitt Peak
    National Observatory as part of the NN-Explore partnership. The wide
    spectral grasp of NEID (380-930 nm) requires a monolithic CCD detector
    with a large area, small pixels, and excellent quantum...

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  75. Dr Emily Martin (UCSC)
    Instruments in nIR
    Poster

    NIRSPEC is a high-resolution (R=𝝀/𝛥𝜆~25,000), cross-dispersed, echelle spectrograph operating from 1-5 um on the Keck II telescope. In Fall 2018, we upgraded the instrument to increase its sensitivity and ensure its continued longevity. We have also used the NIRSPEC instrument as a testbed for developing new technologies, such as laser frequency combs, to improve instrumental stability for...

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