Planet formation imager: project update

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 3 m telescopes with a maximum baseline of 1.2 km focused on young exoplanet imaging and b) twelve 8 m telescopes optimized for a wider range of young exoplanets and protoplanetary disk imaging out to the 150 K H 2 O ice line. Armed with 4 × 8 m 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