SPIRou: A nIR Spectropolarimeter/High-precision Velocimeter for the CFHT

Abstract

SPIRou is a near-infrared (nIR) spectropolarimeter / velocimeter for the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), that will focus on two forefront science topics, (i) the quest for habitable Earth-like planets around nearby M stars, and (ii) the study of low-mass star/planet formation in the presence of magnetic fields. SPIRou will also efficiently tackle many key programmes beyond these two main goals, from weather patterns on brown dwarfs to Solar-System planet and exoplanet atmospheres. SPIRou will cover a wide spectral domain in a single exposure (0.98-2.44 µm) at a resolving power of 70 K, yielding unpolarized and polarized spectra of low-mass stars with a 15% average throughput at a radial velocity (RV) precision of 1 m s −1 . It consists of a Cassegrain unit mounted at the Cassegrain focus of CFHT and featuring an achromatic polarimeter, coupled to a cryogenic spectrograph cooled down at 80 K through a fluoride fiber link. SPIRou is currently integrated at IRAP/OMP and will be mounted at CFHT in 2017 Q4 for a first light scheduled in late 2017. Science operation is predicted to begin in 2018 S2, allowing many fruitful synergies with major ground and space instruments such as the JWST, TESS, ALMA and later-on PLATO and the ELT.

The magnetic propeller accretion regime of LkCa 15

“…Studying how magnetic fields relate to the various types of magnetospheric accretion revealed through continuous photometry (Cody et al 2014;Sousa et al 2016;Cody & Hillenbrand 2018) seems particularly promising in this respect. New generation spectropolarimeters working in the nIR like SPIRou (Donati et al 2017a), giving access to even younger and lower-mass stars and offering an enhanced sensitivity to magnetic fields, should be a prime asset for this task.…”

pyaneti: a fast and powerful software suite for multiplanet radial velocity and transit fitting

“…mass domain. Future exoplanet surveys and follow-up observations conducted with both space-based (TESS, PLATO, CHEOPS; Ricker et al 2015;Rauer et al 2014;Broeg et al 2013) and ground-based (e.g., ESPRESSO, SPIRou; Pepe et al 2010;Donati et al 2017) facilities will provide us with a wealth of photometric and spectroscopic time-series data sets that need powerful tools for a fast and robust analysis.…”

Radial Velocity Photon Limits for the Dwarf Stars of Spectral Classes F–M

“…the HARPS-design(Mayor et al 2003) with very high resolution at visual wavelengths operating at a 4m-class telescope, (3) a red optical design like CARMENES-VIS(Quirrenbach et al 2016) fed by a 4m telescope, and (4) a near-infrared (NIR) design covering wavelengths redward of 900 nm like, e.g., CARMENES-NIR(Quirrenbach et al 2016), SPIROU(Donati et al 2017), NIRPS(Wildi et al 2017), and GIANO(Origlia et al 2014). The parameters are summarized in…”