TIGER

The TIGER Instrument Overview

Phil Hinz - PIJuly 13, 2010

TIGER Specifications

Short Wavelength

Channel

Long Wavelength

Channel

Wavelength Coverage (μm) 2.9-5.1 8-14 (8-25 goal)

Throughput >30% >20%

Pixel Size 0.01” 0.03”

FOV 15-40” 15-60”

minimum Strehl 85% 95%

Spectral Resolution 300 300

Contrast for Coronagraph 10-6 at 2 λ/D 10-6 at 2 λ/D

Contrast for Nulling 10-4

Detector Operating

Temperature

50-80 K 6-10 K

5 sigma limit, 1 hour 21.2 15.7

Resolution 30 mas 75 mas

TIGER Unique Capabilities

Coronagraphic techniques have been optimized for the GMT pupil (Codona 2002) to reduce the PSF well below noise from atmospheric speckles or sky background.

TIGER will primarily work at L’ and N bands, where high sky transparency provide good sensitivity.

The thermally clean GMT pupil and adaptive secondary provide optimal sensitivity at these wavelengths.

TIGER Science Drivers

From Honda et al. 2009. 3-5 micron observationscan detect the existence of icy grains, and probe the variation in composition within a disk.

•TIGER will probe both scattered light and thermal emission of circumstellar disks.•Allows determination of grain size and composition.•Determine structure of disks from protoplanetary to debris phase.•Provide constraints for planet formation scenarios.

•Surveys for gas giant planets on Jupiter-like orbits will be sensitive to <1 MJ planets at separations of >3 AU.•SED characterization can probe physical parameters, constraining formation models.•Rocky planets could be detected via thermal emission around a small sample of stars.•Could provide chance to look for atmospheric signatures around super-Earth-like planets.

From Hinz et al. 2010. L’ band detection of the three planet system around HR 8799.

TIGER Science Drivers

•Dusty AGN and Quasars:•Measure the size (2 pc resolution at 10 Mpc) and probe the temperature of circumnuclear tori around AGN.

•Gravitational Lensing:•Constrain MIR flux ratios of strong lenses and compare to visible, to probe the structure in dark matter haloes.

•Extragalactic Star formation:•Can resolve Super Star Clusters to probe extreme environments for star formation.•Structure of ULIRGs can be probed to a typical resolution of 200 pc at z=0.3.

JWST beam size

The 4x improved resolution of GMT over JWST will allow detailed follow-up of interesting sources in the thermal IR

GMT beam size

Arp 220 as it would appear at z =0.3, relative to the above beam sizes at 4 micron wavelength.

TIGER Instrument Layout