Near-IR and visual high resolution polarimetric imaging with AO systems

TL;DR

This paper reviews the principles, challenges, and performance of adaptive optics polarimeters in high-resolution imaging, highlighting their applications in studying circumstellar disks, stellar winds, and exoplanets.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of AO polarimetry techniques, discusses current limitations, and illustrates their effectiveness in various astrophysical investigations.

Findings

AO polarimeters achieve high spatial resolution imaging.

They effectively study circumstellar disks and dusty stellar winds.

AO systems assist in the search for reflecting exoplanets.

Abstract

Many spectacular polarimetric images have been obtained in recent years with adaptive optics (AO) instruments at large telescopes because they profit significantly from the high spatial resolution. This paper summarizes some basic principles for AO polarimetry, discusses challenges and limitations of these systems, and describes results which illustrate the performance of AO polarimeters for the investigation of circumstellar disks, of dusty winds from evolved stars, and for the search of reflecting extra-solar planets.