We are in the midst of a revolutionary ERA in the study of young protoplanetary disks whereby we are spatially resolving a morphological signatures within disks that could be caused by newly…

The University of Oklahoma, doing business as the University of Oklahoma Office of Research Services, has been awarded a $140,429 grant by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to conduct research relating to the study of young protoplanetary disks. Specifically, the University will use the Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics (SCExAO) instrument and the Visible Aperture Masking Polarimetric Imager for Resolving Exoplanetary Signatures (VAMPIRES) integral field spectrograph on the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii to spatially resolve morphological signatures within disks that could be caused by newly formed or forming planets. Over a three-year period, the research aims to identify disk substructures resulting from disk-planet interactions, assess the viability of candidate directly imaged gas giant planets, and characterize the near-infrared spectroscopic properties of such objects. Performance will take place at the University's facilities in Norman, Oklahoma.

We are in the midst of a revolutionary ERA in the study of young protoplanetary disks whereby we are spatially resolving a morphological signatures within disks that could be caused by newly formed/forming planets and the direct detections of candidate young planets are also now being reported in a few systems. We propose the next major advance in imaging young protoplanetary disks, probing planet formation within them at solar system scales, using a new, cutting-edge instrument combination, subaru scexao/charis and vampires integral field spectroscopy and polarimetry. This program would build upon the highly successful, 5-year subaru/seeds survey of young protoplanetary disks. At strehl ratios of 70-90%, our extreme-AO (exao) integral field polarimetric survey will yield both total intensity and polarized intensity imagery of the inner region (0.04 - 0.50 e.g. 5.6 - 70 AU at the distance to taurus, d 140PC) of suspected planet-forming disks across the JHK bandpass. We will use this unique capability, along with complementary state-of-the-art 3D radiative transfer modeling, to a) identify disk-substructure that could be caused by disk-planet interactions at locations that correspond to the most likely birth location of gas giant planets in these systems b) quantify whether such disk structures are likely due to disk-planet interactions, or likely caused by unrelated phenomena and c) identify and assess the viability of candidate directly imaged gas giant planets (or forming gas giants) in these systems, and characterize the near-IR spectroscopic properties of these objects