Measuring masses of long-period planets around F, G, and K stars is necessary to characterize exoplanets and assess their habitability. Imaging stellar astrometry offers a unique opportunity to solve radial velocity system inclination ambiguity and determine exoplanet masses. The main limiting factor in sparse-field astrometry, besides photon noise, is the non-systematic dynamic distortions that arise from perturbations in the optical train. Even space optics suffer from dynamic distortions in the optical system at the sub-mu as level. To overcome this limitation we propose a diffractive pupil that uses an array of dots on the primary mirror creating polychromatic diffraction spikes in the focal plane, which are used to calibrate the distortions in the optical system. By combining this technology with a high-performance coronagraph, measurements of planetary systems orbits and masses can be obtained faster and more accurately than by applying traditional techniques separately. In this paper, we present the results of the combined astrometry and and high-contrast imaging experiments performed at NASA Ames Research Center as part of a Technology Development for Exoplanet Missions program. We demonstrated 2.38x10(-5) lambda/D astrometric accuracy per axis and 1.72x10(-7) raw contrast from 1.6 to 4.5 lambda/D. In addition, using a simple average subtraction post-processing we demonstrated no contamination of the coronagraph field down to 4.79x10(-9) raw contrast.

Complex-mask coronagraphs destructively interfere unwanted starlight with itself to enable direct imaging of exoplanets. This is accomplished using a focal plane mask (FPM); a FPM can be a simple occulter mask, or in the case of a complex-mask, is a multi-zoned device designed to phase-shift starlight over multiple wavelengths to create a deep achromatic null in the stellar point spread function. Creating these masks requires microfabrication techniques, yet many such methods remain largely unexplored in this context. We explore methods of fabrication of complex FPMs for a Phased-Induced Amplitude Apodization Complex-Mask Coronagraph (PIAACMC). Previous FPM fabrication efforts for PIAACMC have concentrated on mask manufacturability while modeling science yield, as well as assessing broadband wavelength operation. Moreover current fabrication efforts are concentrated on assessing coronagraph performance given a single approach. We present FPMs fabricated using several process paths, including deep reactive ion etching and focused ion beam etching using a silicon substrate. The characteristic size of the mask features is 5 mu m with depths ranging over 1 mu m. The masks are characterized for manufacturing quality using an optical interferometer and a scanning electron microscope. Initial testing is performed at the Subaru Extreme Adaptive Optics testbed, providing a baseline for future experiments to determine and improve coronagraph performance within fabrication tolerances.

Ce travail porte principalement sur la dynamique et les méthodes de détection des exoplanètes coorbitales. Nous appelons "coorbitale" toute configuration pour laquelle deux planètes orbitent avec le même moyen mouvement moyen autour d'une même étoile. Dans un premier temps, nous revisitons les résultats du cas coplanaire circulaire. Nous rappelons également que les variétés des coorbitaux circulaires et celle des coorbitaux coplanaires sont toutes deux invariantes par le flot du Hamiltonien moyen. Nous nous intéressons donc à ces deux cas particuliers. L'accent est mis sur le cas coplanaire (excentrique), où nous étudions l'évolution de familles d'orbites quasi-périodiques de dimension non maximale en fonction de l'excentricité des planètes. Nous montrons que la géométrie des ces familles dépend fortement de l'excentricité, ce qui entraine des changements de topologie importants dans l'ensemble de l'espace des phases à mesure que celle-ci augmente. Un chapitre est dédié à la détection des exoplanètes coorbitales. On y rappelle les différentes méthodes de détection adaptées au cas coorbital. On développe particulièrement le cas des vitesses radiales, ainsi que leur combinaison avec des mesures de transit. Enfin, on décrit une méthode permettant d'étudier l'effet de perturbations orbitales sur les résonances spin-orbite d'un corps indéformable. Nous appliquons cette méthode dans deux cas: le cas coorbital excentrique, et le cas circumbinaire. / This work focuses on the dynamics and the detection methods of co-orbital exoplanets. We call "co-orbital" any configuration in which two planets orbit with the same mean mean-motion around the same star. First, we revisit the results of the circular coplanar case. We also recall that the manifold associated to the coplanar case and the manifold corresponding to the circular case are both invariant by the flow of the averaged Hamiltonian. We hence study these two particular cases. We focus mainly on the coplanar case (eccentric), where we study the evolution of families of non-maximal quasi-periodic orbits parametrized by the eccentricity of the planets. We show that the geometry of these families is highly dependent on the eccentricity, which causes significant topology changes across the space of phases as the latter increases. A chapter is dedicated to the detection of co-orbital exoplanets. We recall the different detection methods adapted to the co-orbital case. We focus on the radial velocity technique, and the combination of radial velocity and transit measurements. Finally, we describe a method to study the effect of orbital perturbations on the spin-orbit resonances for a rigid body. We apply this method in two cases: the eccentric co-orbital case and the circumbinary case.

The increasing number of discovered extra-solar planets opens a new opportunity for studies of the formation of planetary systems. Their diversity keeps challenging the long-standing theories which were based on data primarily from our own solar system. Resonant planetary systems are of particular interest because their dynamical configuration provides constraints on the otherwise unobservable formation and migration phase. In this thesis, formation scenarios for the planetary systems HD128311 and HD45364 are presented. N-body simulations of two planets and two dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of proto-planetary discs are used to realistically model the convergent migration phase and the capture into resonance. The results indicate that the proto-planetary disc initially has a larger surface density than previously thought. Proto-planets are exposed to stochastic forces, generated by density fluctuations in a turbulent disc. A generic model of both a single planet, and two planets in mean motion resonance, being stochastically forced is presented and applied to the system GJ876. It turns out that GJ876 is stable for reasonable strengths of the stochastic forces, but systems with lighter planets can get disrupted. Even if a resonance is not completely disrupted, stochastic forces create characteristic, observable libration patterns. As a further application, the stochastic migration of small bodies in Saturn’s rings is studied. Analytic predictions of collisional and gravitational interactions of a moonlet with ring particles are compared to realistic three dimensional collisional N-body simulations with up to a million particles. Estimates of both the migration rate and the eccentricity evolution of embedded moonlets are confirmed. The random walk of the moonlet is fast enough to be directly observable by the Cassini spacecraft. Turbulence in the proto-stellar disc also plays an important role during the early phases of the planet formation process. In the core accretion model, small, metre-sized particles are getting concentrated in pressure maxima and will eventually undergo a rapid gravitational collapse to form a gravitationally bound planetesimal. Due to the large separation of scales, this process is very hard to model numerically. A scaled method is presented, that allows for the correct treatment of self-gravity for a marginally collisional system by taking into account the relevant small scale processes. Interestingly, this system is dynamically very similar to Saturn’s rings.

L’imagerie d’exoplanètes est limitée par deux obstacles intrinsèques : le faible écart angulaire entre planète et étoile, et le très faible flux lumineux en provenance de la planète par rapport à la lumière de l’étoile. Le premier obstacle est surmonté par l’utilisation de très grands télescopes, de la classe des dix mètres de diamètre, et éventuellement depuis le sol de systèmes d’optique adaptative, qui permettent d’atteindre de hautes résolutions angulaires. Le deuxième obstacle est surmonté par l’utilisation de coronographes. Les coronographes sont des instruments conçus pour filtrer la lumière de l’étoile tout en laissant passer la lumière de l’environnement circumstellaire. Cependant, toute aberration optique en amont du coronographe engendre des fuites de lumière stellaire à travers le coronographe. Ces fuites se traduisent par un fouillis de tavelures dans les images scientifiques, tavelures qui cachent d’éventuelles planètes. Il est donc nécessaire de mesurer et de corriger les aberrations quasi-statiques à l’origine des tavelures. Cette thèse présente des contributions théoriques, numériques et expérimentales à la mesure et à la correction des aberrations des imageurs coronographiques. La première partie décrit le contexte et présente la méthode de la diversité de phase coronographique, un formalisme qui considère l’analyse de surface d’onde post-coronographique comme un problème inverse posé dans un cadre bayésien. La deuxième partie concerne l’imagerie depuis le sol. Elle présente tout d’abord une expression analytique permettant de modéliser l’imagerie coronographique en présence de turbulence, puis l’extension de la méthode de diversité de phase coronographique à la mesure depuis les télescopes au sol donc en présence de turbulence résiduelle, et enfin une validation en laboratoire de cette méthode étendue. La troisième partie est consacrée aux futurs imageurs spatiaux à très hauts contrastes pour lesquels il faut corriger non pas seulement la phase mais tout le champ complexe. Elle présente la validation en laboratoire de la mesure d’un champ complexe d’aberrations par diversité de phase coronographique, ainsi que des premiers résultats d’extinction de la lumière en plan focal par une méthode non linéaire, le non-linear dark hole. / Exoplanet imaging has two intrinsic limitations, namely the small angular separation between the star and the planet, and the very low light flux from the planet compared to the starlight. The first limitation is overcome by using very large telescopes of the ten-metre diameter class, and, for ground-based telescopes, adaptive optics systems, which allow high angular resolution imaging. The second limitation is overcome by using a coronagraph. Coronagraphs are optical devices which filter the starlight while granting passage to the light coming from the stellar environment. However, any optical aberration upstream of the coronagraph causes some of the starlight to leak through the coronagraph. This unfiltered starlight in turn causes speckles in the scientific images, and the light of the planets that could be there is lost among the speckles. Consequently, measurement and correction of the quasi-static aberration which generate the speckles are necessary for the exoplanet imagers to achieve their full potential. This thesis introduces theoretical, numerical, and experimental contributions to the topic of measurement and correction of the aberrations in coronagraphic imagers. The first part describes the context and introduces coronagraphic phase diversity, which is a Bayesian inverse problem formalism for post-coronagraphic wave-front sensing. The second part is focused on ground-based imaging. It introduces an analytic expression for coronagraphic imaging through turbulence, the extension of coronagraphic phase diversity to on-sky measurement through residual turbulence, and a laboratory validation of the extended method. The third part is concerned with future high-contrast space-based imagers, which will require not only phase correction, but a full complex wave-front correction. It presents the laboratory validation of coronagraphic phase diversity as a post-coronagraphic complex wave-front sensor, and first results of active contrast enhancement in the focal plane through thecreation of a non-linear dark hole.

The Polstar mission will provide for a space-borne 60cm telescope operating at UV wavelengths with spectropolarimetric capability capturing all four Stokes parameters (intensity, two linear polarization components, and circular polarization). Polstar’s capabilities are designed to meet its goal of determining how circumstellar gas flows alter massive stars' evolution, and finding the consequences for the stellar remnant population and the stirring and enrichment of the interstellar medium, by addressing four key science objectives. In addition, Polstar will determine drivers for the alignment of the smallest interstellar grains, and probe the dust, magnetic fields, and environments in the hot diffuse interstellar medium, including for the first time a direct measurement of the polarized and energized properties of intergalactic dust. Polstar will also characterize processes that lead to the assembly of exoplanetary systems and that affect exoplanetary atmospheres and habitability. Science driven design requirements include: access to ultraviolet bands: where hot massive stars are brightest and circumstellar opacity is highest; high spectral resolution: accessing diagnostics of circumstellar gas flows and stellar composition in the far-UV at 122-200nm, including the NV, SiIV, and CIV resonance doublets and other transitions such as NIV, AlIII, HeII, and CIII; polarimetry: accessing diagnostics of circumstellar magnetic field shape and strength when combined with high FUV spectral resolution and diagnostics of stellar rotation and distribution of circumstellar gas when combined with low near-UV spectral resolution; sufficient signal-to-noise ratios: ~103 for spectropolarimetric precisions of 0.1% per exposure; ~102 for detailed spectroscopic studies; ~10 for exploring dimmer sources; and cadence: ranging from 1-10 minutes for most wind variability studies, to hours for sampling rotational phase, to days or weeks for sampling orbital phase. The ISM and exoplanet science program will be enabled by these capabilities driven by the massive star science.

Three-dimensional (3D) planetary general circulation models (GCMs) have been derived from global climate models used to project 21st century changes in Earth's climate. GCMs are used to address questions regarding the climate-and habitability aspects of terrestrial planets within the solar system and assess the habitability of planets outside of the solar system, so called exoplanets. The development of GCMs has given rise to various results for concepts essential for determining potential habitable exoplanets such as the Habitable zone, hence intercomparison studies are of interest. In this project, the climate of an exoplanet with a static thermodynamic ocean will be modelled using ROCKE-3D, an open-source (3D) GCM developed at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. This is done in order to simulate the climate and examine how the simulations compare to other GCMs. The climate simulation will also be applied to an Earth-like planet in order to determine how an Earth-like climate will impact the results. We find that the climate on a rapidly rotating Aquaplanet receiving a G-star spectral energy distribution is surprisingly Earth-like. By contributing to a higher albedo, the ocean ice fraction of a rapidly rotating Aquaplanet was shown to impact the temperature and humidity structure considerably, despite the absence of Ocean Heat Transport. However, small differences between the simulations with and without sea ice were found for a tidally locked Aquaplanet receiving a M-star spectral energy distribution, which indicates that ROCKE-3D is not shutting off sea ice properly. Generally, ROCKE-3D shows similar results as CAM4 for the G-star runs and for the M-star, ROCKE-3D shows similar results to LMDG. / Tredimensionella (3D) planetariska allmänna cirkulationsmodeller (GCM) har härletts från de globala klimatmodeller som används för att projicera 2000-talets förändringar i jordens klimat. GCM används för att bemöta frågor om klimat- och beboelighetsaspekter av jordlika planeter inom solsystemet och bedöma beboeligheten för planeter utanför solsystemet, så kallade exoplaneter. Utvecklingen av GCM har gett upphov till olika resultat för begrepp som är väsentliga för att bestämma potentiella beboeliga exoplaneter såsom den beboerliga zonen, därför är jämförande studier av intresse. I detta projekt kommer klimatet för en exoplanet med ett statiskt termodynamiskt hav att modelleras av ROCKE-3D, en öppen källkod (3D) GCM utvecklad vid NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Detta görs för att simulera klimatet och undersöka hur simuleringarna står sig i jämförelse med andra GCMs. Klimatsimuleringen kommer också att tillämpas på en jordliknande planet för att avgöra hur ett jordliknande klimat kommer att påverka resultaten. Vi finner att klimatet på en snabbt roterande vattenplanet som mottar en G-stjärnig spektral energifördelning är överraskande jordliknande. Genom att bidra till ett högre albedo visade havsisfraktionen av en snabbt roterande Aquaplanet att påverka temperatur- och fuktstrukturen avsevärt, trots frånvaron av havsvärmetransport. Små skillnader mellan simuleringarna med-och utan havsis påvisades för en tidvattenlåst vattenplanet som mottar en M-stjärnig spektral energifördelning, vilket tyder på att ROCKE-3D inte bortser havsis ordentligt. Generellt visar ROCKE-3D liknande resultat som CAM4 för en G-stjärna. För en M-stjärna visar ROCKE-3D liknande resultat som LMDG.

Atmospheres play an important role in the habitability of a planet, so understanding and modelling them is an important step in the search for life on other planets. This thesis presents a 1D frequency-dependent radiative-convective code that was written to help determine the temperature-pressure structure of potentially-habitable exoplanets. This code pairs with a chemistry model to determine the chemical composition of these planets' atmospheres. This code is applied to the planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system. The initial atmospheric compositions of the TRAPPIST-1 planets are determined through planet formation history and considered for both outgassed and accreted atmospheres. An interesting result is found when running these initial atmospheric compositions through the chemistry model: when the atmosphere equilibrates, it can change its C/O ratio from equal to that found in the accreted or outgassed volatiles to something lower, because, in temperate conditions, CO$_2$ is favoured over CO. This has the consequence that observed C/O ratios in terrestrial atmospheres cannot be relied on to infer the C/O ratio of the protoplanetary disc in which the planet formed. The initial results of atmospheric modelling for TRAPPIST-1 planets indicate that these planets are likely to have relatively warmer upper atmospheres due to the fact that their host star emits primarily in the infrared, and a portion of this radiation is then absorbed as it enters the top of the atmosphere. These initial results have not been seen in previous work. These initial results are the beginning of a database of potential atmospheres on the TRAPPIST-1 planets. It is hoped that these atmospheres can be compared with observations from future observing missions like the James Webb Space Telescope to help constrain the surface conditions of these potentially-habitable planets and ultimately, to help in the search for life. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Brown dwarfs are substellar objects that fall in-between the smallest stars and largest planets in size and temperature. Due to their relatively cool temperatures, the atmospheres of these 'failed stars' have been shown to exhibit interesting properties such as iron, silicate, and salt clouds. Theoretical atmospheric models based on known physics and chemistry can be used as tools to interpret and understand our observations of brown dwarfs. I have fit archival and new infrared spectra of over 300 brown dwarfs with atmospheric models. Using the parameters of the best-fit models as estimates for the physical properties of the brown dwarfs in my sample, I have performed a survey of how brown dwarfs evolve with spectral type and temperature. I present my fit results and observed trends. I use these fit results to note where current atmospheric models are able to well-replicate the data and where the models and data conflict.

The detection of low-mass extra-solar planets through radial-velocity searches is currently limited by the intrinsic magnetic activity of the host stars. The correlated noise that arises from their natural radial-velocity variability can easily mimic or conceal the orbital signals of super-Earth and Earth-mass extra-solar planets. I developed an intuitive and robust data analysis framework in which the activity-induced variations are modelled with a Gaussian process that has the frequency structure of the photometric variations of the star, thus allowing me to determine precise and reliable planetary masses. I applied this technique to three recently discovered planetary systems: CoRoT-7, Kepler-78 and Kepler-10. I determined the masses of the transiting super-Earth CoRoT-7b and the small Neptune CoRoT-7c to be 4.73 ± 0.95 M⊕ and 13.56 ± 1.08 M⊕, respectively. The density of CoRoT-7b is 6.61 ± 1.72 g.cm⁻³, which is compatible with a rocky composition. I carried out Bayesian model selection to assess the nature of a previously identified signal at 9 days, and found that it is best interpreted as stellar activity. Despite the high levels of activity of its host star, I determined the mass of the Earth-sized planet Kepler-78b to be 1.76 ± 0.18 M⊕. With a density of 6.2(+1.8:-1.4) g.cm⁻³, it is also a rocky planet. I found the masses of Kepler-10b and Kepler-10c to be 3.31 ± 0.32 M⊕ and 16.25 ± 3.66 M⊕, respectively. Their densities, of 6.4(+1.1:-0.7) g.cm⁻³ and 8.1 ± 1.8 g.cm⁻³, imply that they are both of rocky composition – even the 2 Earth-radius planet Kepler-10c! In parallel, I deepened our understanding of the physical origin of stellar radial-velocity variability through the study of the Sun, which is the only star whose surface can be imaged at high resolution. I found that the full-disc magnetic flux is an excellent proxy for activity-induced radial-velocity variations; this result may become key to breaking the activity barrier in coming years. I also found that in the case of CoRoT-7, the suppression of convective blueshift leads to radial-velocity variations with an rms of 1.82 m.s⁻¹, while the modulation induced by the presence of dark spots on the rotating stellar disc has an rms of 0.46 m.s⁻¹. For the Sun, I found these contributions to be 2.22 m.s⁻¹ and 0.14 m.s⁻¹, respectively. These results suggest that for slowly rotating stars, the suppression of convective blueshift is the dominant contributor to the activity-modulated radial-velocity signal, rather than the rotational Doppler shift of the flux blocked by starspots.