We present H-band near-infrared polarimetric imaging observations of the F5V star HD 157587 obtained with the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) that reveal the debris disk as a bright ring structure at a separation of similar to 80-100 au. The new GPI data complement recent Hubble Space Telescope/STIS observations that show the disk extending out to over 500 au. The GPI image displays a strong asymmetry along the projected minor axis as well as a fainter asymmetry along the projected major axis. We associate the minor and major axis asymmetries with polarized forward scattering and a possible stellocentric offset, respectively. To constrain the disk geometry, we fit two separate disk models to the polarized image, each using a different scattering phase function. Both models favor a disk inclination of similar to 70 degrees and a 1.5 +/- 0.6 au stellar offset in the plane of the sky along the projected major axis of the disk. We find that the stellar offset in the disk plane, perpendicular to the projected major axis is degenerate with the form of the scattering phase function and remains poorly constrained. The disk is not recovered in total intensity due in part to strong adaptive optics residuals, but we recover three point sources. Considering the system's proximity to the galactic plane and the point sources' positions relative to the disk, we consider it likely that they are background objects and unrelated to the disk's offset from the star.

HD 169142 is an excellent target for investigating signs of planet-disk interaction due to previous evidence of gap structures. We perform J-band (similar to 1.2 mu m) polarized intensity imaging of HD 169142 with VLT/SPHERE. We observe polarized scattered light down to 0 ''.16 (similar to 19 au) and find an inner gap with a significantly reduced scattered-light flux. We confirm the previously detected double-ring structure peaking at 0 ''.18 (similar to 21 au) and 0 ''.56 (similar to 66 au) and marginally detect a faint third gap at 0 ''.70-0 ''.73 (similar to 82-85 au). We explore dust evolution models in a disk perturbed by two giant planets, as well as models with a parameterized dust size distribution. The dust evolution model is able to reproduce the ring locations and gap widths in polarized intensity but fails to reproduce their depths. However, it gives a good match with the ALMA dust continuum image at 1.3 mm. Models with a parameterized dust size distribution better reproduce the gap depth in scattered light, suggesting that dust filtration at the outer edges of the gaps is less effective. The pileup of millimeter grains in a dust trap and the continuous distribution of small grains throughout the gap likely require more efficient dust fragmentation and dust diffusion in the dust trap. Alternatively, turbulence or charging effects might lead to a reservoir of small grains at the surface layer that is not affected by the dust growth and fragmentation cycle dominating the dense disk midplane. The exploration of models shows that extracting planet properties such as mass from observed gap profiles is highly degenerate.

Mira and semi-regular variable stars have been studied for centuries but continue to be enigmatic. One unsolved mystery is the presence of polarization from these stars. In particular, we present 40 years of polarization measurements for the prototype o Ceti and V CVn and find very different phenomena for each star. The polarization fraction and position angle for Mira is found to be small and highly variable. On the other hand, the polarization fraction for V CVn is large and variable, from 2-7%, and its position angle is approximately constant, suggesting a long-term asymmetric structure. We suggest a number of potential scenarios to explain these observations.

The Hanle effect has been proposed as a new diagnostic of circumstellar magnetic fields for early-type stars, for which it is sensitive to field strengths in the 1-300 G range. In this paper we compute the polarized P Cygni line profiles that result from the Hanle effect. For modeling the polarization, we employ a variant of the "last scattering approximation." For cases in which the Sobolev optical depths are greater than unity, the emergent line intensity is assumed to be unpolarized, while for smaller optical depths, the Stokes source functions for the Hanle effect with optically thin line scattering are used. For a typical P Cygni line, the polarized emission forms in the outer wind, because the Sobolev optical depth is large at the inner wind. For low surface field strengths, weak P Cygni lines are needed to measure the circumstellar field. For high values of the surface fields, both the Zeeman and Hanle diagnostics can be used, with the Zeeman effect probing the photospheric magnetic fields and the Hanle effect measuring the magnetic field in the wind flow. Polarized line profiles are calculated for a self-consistent structure of the flow and the magnetic geometry based on the WCFields model, which is applicable to slowly rotating stellar winds with magnetic fields drawn out by the gas flow. For surface fields of a few hundred gauss, we find that the Hanle effect can produce line polarizations in the range of a few tenths of a percent up to about 2%.

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Optical fibers are increasingly being used to create sensing devices. The D-fiber has an elliptical core and exhibits birefringence. This birefringence can be used to create a polarimetric sensor. The elliptical core supports two orthogonal modes that have separate effective indices of refraction. The indices of refraction change with a change in temperature. Since the effective indices of refraction change differently for the two modes, the birefringence also changes. This change in birefringence can be seen as a change in detected power through the fiber through the use of polarizers. The fiber then becomes a temperature sensor. The sensitivity of the fiber can be enhanced by replacing a section of the core of the fiber with a sensing material. With the sensing material in the core of the fiber, it has direct interaction with the light and strongly affects it. A polarimetric temperature sensor is created by replacing a section of the core with a polymer, which is sensitive to temperature. The core-replaced fiber in a polarimetric sensing configuration is compared to a a unetched fiber set up in the same way. The core-replaced fiber sensor is five times as sensitive to temperature as an unetched fiber.

Land cover classification using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data has been a topic of great interest in recent literature. Food commodities output prediction through crop identification, environmental monitoring, and forest regrowth tracking are some of the many problems that can be aided by land cover classification methods. The need for fast and automated classification methods is apparent in a variety of applications involving vast amounts of SAR data. One fundamental step in any supervised learning classification algorithm is the selection and/or extraction of features present in the dataset to be used for class discrimination. A popular method that has been proposed for feature extraction from polarimetric data is to decompose the data into the underlying scattering mechanisms. In this research, the Freeman and Durden scattering model is applied to ALOS PALSAR fully polarimetric data for feature extraction. Efficient methods for solving the complex system of equations present in the scattering model are developed and compared. Using the features from the Freeman and Durden work, the classification capability of the model is assessed on amazon rainforest land cover types using a supervised Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification algorithm. The quantity of land cover types that can be discriminated using the model is also determined. Additionally, the performance of the median as a robust estimator in noisy environments for multi-pixel windowing is also characterized. / Master of Science / Land type classification using Radar data has been a topic of great interest in recent literature. Food commodities output prediction through crop identification, environmental monitoring, and forest regrowth tracking are some of the many problems that can be aided by land cover classification methods. The need for fast and automated classification methods is apparent in a variety of applications involving vast amounts of Radar data. One fundamental step in any classification algorithm is the selection and/or extraction of discriminating features present in the dataset to be used for class discrimination. A popular method that has been proposed for feature extraction from polarized Radar data is to decompose the data into the underlying scatter components. In this research, a scattering model is applied to real world data for feature extraction. Efficient methods for solving the complex system of equations present in the scattering model are developed and compared. Using the features from the scattering model, the classification capability of the model is assessed on amazon rainforest land types using a Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification algorithm. The quantity of land cover types that can be discriminated using the model is also determined and compared using different estimators.

Polarimetric systems design has seen recent utilization of linear systems theory for system descriptions. Although noise optimal systems have been shown, bandwidth performance has not been addressed in depth generally and is particularly lacking for Mueller matrix (active) polarimetric systems. Bandwidth must be considered in a systematic way for remote sensing polarimetric systems design. The systematic approach facilitates both understanding of fundamental constraints and design of higher bandwidth polarimetric systems. Fundamental bandwidth constraints result in production of polarimetric "artifacts" due to channel crosstalk upon Mueller matrix reconstruction. This dissertation analyzes bandwidth trade-offs in spatio-temporal channeled Mueller matrix polarimetric systems. Bandwidth is directly related to the geometric positioning of channels in the Fourier (channel) space, however channel positioning for polarimetric systems is constrained both physically and by design parameters like domain separability. We present the physical channel constraints and the constraints imposed when the carriers are separable between space and time. Polarimetric systems are also constrained by noise performance, and there is a trade-off between noise performance and bandwidth. I develop cost functions which account for the trade-off between noise and bandwidth for spatio-temporal polarimetric systems. The cost functions allow a systems designer to jointly optimize systems with good bandwidth and noise performance. Optimization is implemented for a candidate spatio-temporal system design, and high temporal bandwidth systems resulting from the optimization are presented. Systematic errors which impact the bandwidth performance and mitigation strategies for these systematic errors are also presented. Finally, a portable imaging Mueller matrix system is built and analyzed based on the theoretical bandwidth analysis and system bandwidth optimization. Temporal bandwidth performance is improved by 300% over a conventional dual rotating retarder Mueller matrix polarimeter. Reconstruction results from the physical instrument are presented, and issues with the implemented system design are discussed.

After several years of quiescence, the blazar CTA 102 underwent an exceptional outburst in 2012 September-October. The flare was tracked from gamma-ray to near-infrared (NIR) frequencies, including Fermi and Swift data as well as photometric and polarimetric data from several observatories. An intensive Glast-Agile support programme of the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (GASP-WEBT) collaboration campaign in optical and NIR bands, with an addition of previously unpublished archival data and extension through fall 2015, allows comparison of this outburst with the previous activity period of this blazar in 2004-2005. We find remarkable similarity between the optical and gamma-ray behaviour of CTA 102 during the outburst, with a time lag between the two light curves of approximate to 1 h, indicative of cospatiality of the optical and gamma-ray emission regions. The relation between the gamma-ray and optical fluxes is consistent with the synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) mechanism, with a quadratic dependence of the SSC gamma -ray flux on the synchrotron optical flux evident in the post-outburst stage. However, the gamma -ray/optical relationship is linear during the outburst; we attribute this to changes in the Doppler factor. A strong harder-when-brighter spectral dependence is seen both the in gamma-ray and optical non-thermal emission. This hardening can be explained by convexity of the UV-NIR spectrum that moves to higher frequencies owing to an increased Doppler shift as the viewing angle decreases during the outburst stage. The overall pattern of Stokes parameter variations agrees with a model of a radiating blob or shock wave that moves along a helical path down the jet.