CoronaGraph Instrument Reference stars for Exoplanets (CorGI-REx) I. Preliminary Vetting and Implications for the Roman Coronagraph and Habitable Worlds Observatory

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Hauptverfasser: Hom, Justin, Wolff, Schuyler G., Clark, Catherine A., Ciardi, David R., Deveny, Sarah J., Howell, Steve B., Greenbaum, Alexandra Z., Littlefield, Colin, Anche, Ramya M., Bailey, Vanessa P., Brandner, Wolfgang, Chauvin, Gaël, Girard, Julien H., Kern, Brian, Mamajek, Eric, Mennesson, Bertrand, Savransky, Dmitry, Stapelfeldt, Karl R., Biller, Beth A., Brinjikji, Marah, Kuzuhara, Masayuki, Millar-Blanchaer, Maxwell A., Mizuki, Toshiyuki, Schragal, Nicholas T., Vega-Pallauta, Macarena C., Wang, Jason J., De Rosa, Robert J., Douglas, Ewan S., Macintosh, Bruce, Zhang, Jingwen, Program, the Roman Coronagraph Community Participation
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Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Hom, Justin
Wolff, Schuyler G.
Clark, Catherine A.
Ciardi, David R.
Deveny, Sarah J.
Howell, Steve B.
Greenbaum, Alexandra Z.
Littlefield, Colin
Anche, Ramya M.
Bailey, Vanessa P.
Brandner, Wolfgang
Chauvin, Gaël
Girard, Julien H.
Kern, Brian
Mamajek, Eric
Mennesson, Bertrand
Savransky, Dmitry
Stapelfeldt, Karl R.
Biller, Beth A.
Brinjikji, Marah
Kuzuhara, Masayuki
Millar-Blanchaer, Maxwell A.
Mizuki, Toshiyuki
Schragal, Nicholas T.
Vega-Pallauta, Macarena C.
Wang, Jason J.
De Rosa, Robert J.
Douglas, Ewan S.
Macintosh, Bruce
Zhang, Jingwen
Program, the Roman Coronagraph Community Participation
author_facet Hom, Justin
Wolff, Schuyler G.
Clark, Catherine A.
Ciardi, David R.
Deveny, Sarah J.
Howell, Steve B.
Greenbaum, Alexandra Z.
Littlefield, Colin
Anche, Ramya M.
Bailey, Vanessa P.
Brandner, Wolfgang
Chauvin, Gaël
Girard, Julien H.
Kern, Brian
Mamajek, Eric
Mennesson, Bertrand
Savransky, Dmitry
Stapelfeldt, Karl R.
Biller, Beth A.
Brinjikji, Marah
Kuzuhara, Masayuki
Millar-Blanchaer, Maxwell A.
Mizuki, Toshiyuki
Schragal, Nicholas T.
Vega-Pallauta, Macarena C.
Wang, Jason J.
De Rosa, Robert J.
Douglas, Ewan S.
Macintosh, Bruce
Zhang, Jingwen
Program, the Roman Coronagraph Community Participation
contents The upcoming Roman Coronagraph will be the first high-contrast instrument in space capable of high-order wavefront sensing and control technologies, a critical technology demonstration for the proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) that aims to directly image and characterize habitable exoEarths. The nominal Roman Coronagraph observing plan involves alternating observations of a science target and a bright, nearby reference star. High contrast is achieved using wavefront sensing and control, also known as "digging a dark hole", where performance depends on the properties of the reference star, requiring V<3, a resolved stellar diameter <2 mas, and no stellar multiplicity. The imposed brightness and diameter criteria limit the sample of reference star candidates to high-mass main sequence and post-main sequence objects, where multiplicity rates are high. A future HWO coronagraph may have similarly restrictive criteria in reference star selection. From an exhaustive literature review of 95 stars, we identify an initial list of 40 primary and 18 reserve reference star candidates relevant to both the Roman Coronagraph and HWO. We present results from an initial survey of these candidates with high-resolution adaptive optics imaging and speckle interferometry and identify no new companions. We discuss the need for higher-contrast observations to sufficiently vet these reference star candidates prior to Roman Coronagraph observations along with the implications of reference star criteria on observation planning for Roman and HWO.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_08862
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle CoronaGraph Instrument Reference stars for Exoplanets (CorGI-REx) I. Preliminary Vetting and Implications for the Roman Coronagraph and Habitable Worlds Observatory
Hom, Justin
Wolff, Schuyler G.
Clark, Catherine A.
Ciardi, David R.
Deveny, Sarah J.
Howell, Steve B.
Greenbaum, Alexandra Z.
Littlefield, Colin
Anche, Ramya M.
Bailey, Vanessa P.
Brandner, Wolfgang
Chauvin, Gaël
Girard, Julien H.
Kern, Brian
Mamajek, Eric
Mennesson, Bertrand
Savransky, Dmitry
Stapelfeldt, Karl R.
Biller, Beth A.
Brinjikji, Marah
Kuzuhara, Masayuki
Millar-Blanchaer, Maxwell A.
Mizuki, Toshiyuki
Schragal, Nicholas T.
Vega-Pallauta, Macarena C.
Wang, Jason J.
De Rosa, Robert J.
Douglas, Ewan S.
Macintosh, Bruce
Zhang, Jingwen
Program, the Roman Coronagraph Community Participation
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
The upcoming Roman Coronagraph will be the first high-contrast instrument in space capable of high-order wavefront sensing and control technologies, a critical technology demonstration for the proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) that aims to directly image and characterize habitable exoEarths. The nominal Roman Coronagraph observing plan involves alternating observations of a science target and a bright, nearby reference star. High contrast is achieved using wavefront sensing and control, also known as "digging a dark hole", where performance depends on the properties of the reference star, requiring V<3, a resolved stellar diameter <2 mas, and no stellar multiplicity. The imposed brightness and diameter criteria limit the sample of reference star candidates to high-mass main sequence and post-main sequence objects, where multiplicity rates are high. A future HWO coronagraph may have similarly restrictive criteria in reference star selection. From an exhaustive literature review of 95 stars, we identify an initial list of 40 primary and 18 reserve reference star candidates relevant to both the Roman Coronagraph and HWO. We present results from an initial survey of these candidates with high-resolution adaptive optics imaging and speckle interferometry and identify no new companions. We discuss the need for higher-contrast observations to sufficiently vet these reference star candidates prior to Roman Coronagraph observations along with the implications of reference star criteria on observation planning for Roman and HWO.
title CoronaGraph Instrument Reference stars for Exoplanets (CorGI-REx) I. Preliminary Vetting and Implications for the Roman Coronagraph and Habitable Worlds Observatory
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.08862