Extrasolar counterparts to the zodiacal disk in our solar system represent potential sources of noise for future space-based exoplanet imaging missions. However, the few known detections of exozodiacal dust provide few constraints on their spatial structure, and a variety of physical models vie to explain them, most notably the continued existence of ‘hot’ dust within just a few stellar radii of some host stars. We propose to harness the high-contrast imaging capability of VAMPIRES and CHARIS, coupled with SCExAO, to probe the scattered and thermal light of exozodiacal dust that would exist outside of the innermost regions of the systems. This will constrain models of dust replenishment in the inner systems, as well as quantify their contributions of photon noise to future observations. Our observations will especially take advantage of a new multiwavelength mode of VAMPIRES and a lower-noise detector.
This document was translated from LATEX by HEVEA.