Planet Formation Imager (PFI): Introduction and Technical Considerations

TL;DR

The Planet Formation Imager (PFI) aims to develop a high-resolution interferometric facility to observe and understand all major stages of planet formation, from dust coagulation to disk dispersal, across various stellar environments.

Contribution

This paper introduces the PFI project, outlining its scientific goals, technical considerations, and the roadmap for constructing an interferometric facility dedicated to studying planet formation.

Findings

PFI will enable direct imaging of planet formation processes.

The project will detect emission from newly-formed planets within 100 million years.

Technical advances are proposed for the development of the interferometric facility.

Abstract

Complex non-linear and dynamic processes lie at the heart of the planet formation process. Through numerical simulation and basic observational constraints, the basics of planet formation are now coming into focus. High resolution imaging at a range of wavelengths will give us a glimpse into the past of our own solar system and enable a robust theoretical framework for predicting planetary system architectures around a range of stars surrounded by disks with a diversity of initial conditions. Only long-baseline interferometry can provide the needed angular resolution and wavelength coverage to reach these goals and from here we launch our planning efforts. The aim of the "Planet Formation Imager" (PFI) project is to develop the roadmap for the construction of a new near-/mid-infrared interferometric facility that will be optimized to unmask all the major stages of planet formation, from initial dust coagulation, gap formation, evolution of transition disks, mass accretion onto planetary embryos, and eventual disk dispersal. PFI will be able to detect the emission of the cooling, newly-formed planets themselves over the first 100 Myrs, opening up both spectral investigations and also providing a vibrant look into the early dynamical histories of planetary architectures. Here we introduce the Planet Formation Imager (PFI) Project (www.planetformationimager.org) and give initial thoughts on possible facility architectures and technical advances that will be needed to meet the challenging top-level science requirements.