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American Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal Supplement, 2(216), p. 23, 2015

DOI: 10.1088/0067-0049/216/2/23

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Exo-zodi Modeling for the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer

Journal article published in 2015 by Grant M. Kennedy, Mark C. Wyatt, Vanessa Bailey ORCID, Geoffrey Bryden, William C. Danchi, Denis Defrere, Chris Haniff, Philip M. Hinz, Jérémy Lebreton, Bertrand Mennesson ORCID, Rafael Millan-Gabet, Andrew J. Skemer ORCID, Farisa Morales, Olja Panić, Karl R. Stapelfeldt and other authors.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

This is the accepted manuscript. It will be embargoed until 27/01/2015. The final version is available from IOP Science. ; Habitable zone dust levels are a key unknown that must be understood to ensure the success of future space missions to image Earth analogues around nearby stars. Current detection limits are several orders of magnitude above the level of the Solar System?s Zodiacal cloud, so characterisation of the brightness distribution of exozodi down to much fainter levels is needed. To this end, the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI) will detect thermal emission from habitable zone exo-zodi a few times brighter than Solar System levels. Here we present a modelling framework for interpreting LBTI observations, which yields dust levels from detections and upper limits that are then converted into predictions and upper limits for the scattered light surface brightness. We apply this model to the HOSTS survey sample of nearby stars; assuming a null depth uncertainty of 10?4 the LBTI will be sensitive to dust a few times above the Solar System level around Sun-like stars, and to even lower dust levels for more massive stars. ; The Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer is funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as part of its Exoplanet Exploration Program. This work was supported by the European Union through ERC grant number 279973 (GMK, OP, ABS & MCW).