Planet Formation Imager: Project Update

TL;DR

The Planet Formation Imager project aims to develop a high-resolution infrared interferometer to directly image key stages of planet formation, with recent simulations and design proposals for different telescope configurations.

Contribution

This paper provides an update on PFI's design concepts, simulation results, and technological developments for imaging young exoplanets and protoplanetary disks.

Findings

Simulations of dust structures during planet assembly.

Detection efficiencies for young exoplanets based on mass and age.

Proposed telescope configurations for optimized planet imaging.

Abstract

The Planet Formation Imager (PFI) is a near- and mid-infrared interferometer project with the driving science goal of imaging directly the key stages of planet formation, including the young proto-planets themselves. Here, we will present an update on the work of the Science Working Group (SWG), including new simulations of dust structures during the assembly phase of planet formation and quantitative detection efficiencies for accreting and non-accreting young exoplanets as a function of mass and age. We use these results to motivate two reference PFI designs consisting of a) twelve 3m telescopes with a maximum baseline of 1.2km focused on young exoplanet imaging and b) twelve 8m telescopes optimized for a wider range of young exoplanets and protoplanetary disk imaging out to the 150K H2O ice line. Armed with 4x8m telescopes, the ESO/VLTI can already detect young exoplanets in principle and projects such as MATISSE, Hi-5 and Heimdallr are important PFI pathfinders to make this possible. We also discuss the state of technology development needed to make PFI more affordable, including progress towards new designs for inexpensive, small field-of-view, large aperture telescopes and prospects for Cubesat-based space interferometry.