Sensitive Identification of Nearby Debris Disks via Precise Calibration of WISE Data

TL;DR

This paper presents a precise calibration method for WISE data that enables the detection of over 100 new infrared excess sources around nearby stars, improving debris disk studies.

Contribution

The authors developed an empirical calibration and filtering process for WISE data, allowing detection of faint infrared excesses around bright stars for the first time.

Findings

Detected over 100 new infrared excess sources.

Achieved sensitivity to excess fluxes as low as 8% of stellar emission.

Enhanced understanding of debris disk evolution.

Abstract

Using data from the WISE All-Sky Survey, we have found >100 new infrared excess sources around main-sequence Hipparcos stars within 75pc. Our empirical calibration of WISE photospheric colors and removal of non-trivial false-positive sources are responsible for the high confidence (>99.5%) of detections, while our corrections to saturated W1 (3.4um) and W2 (4.6um) photometry have for the first time allowed us to search for new infrared excess sources around bright field stars in WISE. The careful calibration and filtering of the WISE data have allowed us to probe excess fluxes down to roughly 8% of the photospheric emission at 22um around saturated stars in WISE. We expect that the increased sensitivity of our survey will not only aid in understanding the evolution of debris disks, but will also benefit future studies using WISE.