NASA has funded a project called the Hunt for Observable Signatures of Terrestrial Systems (HOSTS) to survey nearby solar type stars to determine the amount of warm zodiacal dust in their habitable zones. The goal is not only to determine the luminosity distribution function but also to know which individual stars have the least amount of zodiacal dust. It is important to have this information for future missions that directly image exoplanets as this dust is the main source of astrophysical noise for them. The HOSTS project utilizes the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI), which consists of two 8.4-m apertures separated by a 14.4-m baseline on Mt. Graham, Arizona. The LBTI operates in a nulling mode in the mid-infrared spectral window (8-13 mu m), in which light from the two telescopes is coherently combined with a 180 degree phase shift between them, producing a dark fringe at the location of the target star. In doing so the starlight is greatly reduced, increasing the contrast, analogous to a coronagraph operating at shorter wavelengths. The LBTI is a unique instrument, having only three warm reflections before the starlight reaches cold mirrors, giving it the best photometric sensitivity of any interferometer operating in the mid-infrared. It also has a superb Adaptive Optics (AO) system giving it Strehl ratios greater than 98% at 10 mu m. In 2014 into early 2015 LBTI was undergoing commissioning. The HOSTS project team passed its Operational Readiness Review (ORR) in April 2015. The team recently published papers on the target sample, modeling of the nulled disk images, and initial results such as the detection of warm dust around eta Corvi. Recently a paper was published on the data pipeline and on-sky performance. An additional paper is in preparation on beta Leo. We will discuss the scientific and programmatic context for the LBTI project, and we will report recent progress, new results, and plans for the science verification phase that started in February 2016, and for the survey.

Planetary systems are not only composed of planets, but also of km-sized rocky and icy bodies that are confined within belts similar to the Asteroid and Kuiper belt in the Solar System. Mutual collisions within these belts grind down solids producing dust and giving rise to debris discs. Primitive asteroids and comets likely played a major role in the emergence of life on Earth through their delivery of volatiles early in the lifetime of our planet. Cometary impacts, therefore, could be a necessary condition for the emergence of life in exoplanets and the study of debris discs essential to determine the ubiquity of such phenomenon. Moreover, exocometary discs provide a unique window into the origins and outer regions of planetary systems as comets do within our Solar System. Initially, in Chapter 1 I present an overview of the study of exoplanetary systems, focusing on debris discs. I discuss the basics of planet formation, its connection with debris discs, and how these evolve and interact with planets. I also describe how we observe these discs and probe their volatile component that is locked inside exocomets, and some evidence supporting the idea of exocomets venturing into the inner regions of planetary systems. Then, in Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5 I present new ALMA observations of the systems HD 181327, η Corvi, the multiplanet system 61 Vir and HD 107146, which host debris discs. In the first two, I highlight the derivation of the density structure of their discs and the detection of volatiles being released by exocomets; while in the third and fourth I compare the observations with simulations, which I use to set constraints on the underlying planetesimal distribution and mass and orbital distance of unseen planets. Finally, in Chapter 6 I present result obtained from N-body simulations to study the process of inward transport of comets by a multiplanetary system and how these can deliver material to inner planets and explain the frequently observed exozodiacal dust. To conclude, in Chapter 7 I summarise the results and conclusions of this dissertation and discuss ongoing and future work.