The Thermal Infrared imager for the GMT which provides Extreme contrast and Resolution (TIGER) is intended as a small-scale, targeted instrument capable of detecting and characterizing exoplanets and circumstellar disks, around both young systems in formation, and more mature systems in the solar neighborhood. TIGER can also provide general purpose infrared imaging at wavelengths from 1.5-14 mu m. The instrument will utilize the facility adaptive optics (AO) system. With its operation at NIR to MIR wavelengths (where good image quality is easier to achieve), and much of the high-impact science using modestly bright guide stars, the instrument can be used early in the operation of the GMT.

Analyses of primitive meteorites and cometary samples have shown that the solar nebula must have experienced a phase of large-scale outward transport of small refractory grains as well as homogenization of initially spatially heterogeneous short-lived isotopes. The stable oxygen isotopes, however, were able to remain spatially heterogeneous at the similar to 6% level. One promising mechanism for achieving these disparate goals is the mixing and transport associated with a marginally gravitationally unstable (MGU) disk, a likely cause of FU Orionis events in young low-mass stars. Several new sets of MGU models are presented that explore mixing and transport in disks with varied masses (0.016 to 0.13 M-circle dot) around stars with varied masses (0.1 to 1 M-circle dot) and varied initial Q stability minima (1.8 to 3.1). The results show that MGU disks are able to rapidly (within similar to 10(4) yr) achieve large-scale transport and homogenization of initially spatially heterogeneous distributions of disk grains or gas. In addition, the models show that while single-shot injection heterogeneity is reduced to a relatively low level (similar to 1%), as required for early solar system chronometry, continuous injection of the sort associated with the generation of stable oxygen isotope fractionations by UV photolysis leads to a sustained, relatively high level (similar to 10%) of heterogeneity, in agreement with the oxygen isotope data. These models support the suggestion that the protosun may have experienced at least one FU Orionis-like outburst, which produced several of the signatures left behind in primitive chondrites and comets.

We have completed a high-contrast direct imaging survey for giant planets around 57 debris disk stars as part of the Gemini NICI Planet-Finding Campaign. We achieved median H-band contrasts of 12.4 mag at 0.'' 5 and 14.1 mag at 1 '' separation. Follow-up observations of the 66 candidates with projected separation <500 AU show that all of them are background objects. To establish statistical constraints on the underlying giant planet population based on our imaging data, we have developed a new Bayesian formalism that incorporates (1) non-detections, (2) single-epoch candidates, (3) astrometric and (4) photometric information, and (5) the possibility of multiple planets per star to constrain the planet population. Our formalism allows us to include in our analysis the previously known beta Pictoris and the HR 8799 planets. Our results show at 95% confidence that <13% of debris disk stars have a >= 5 M-Jup planet beyond 80 AU, and <21% of debris disk stars have a >= 3 M-Jup planet outside of 40 AU, based on hot-start evolutionary models. We model the population of directly imaged planets as d(2)N/dMda proportional to m(alpha)a(beta), where m is planet mass and a is orbital semi-major axis (with a maximum value of a(max)). We find that beta < -0.8 and/or alpha > 1.7. Likewise, we find that beta < -0.8 and/or a(max) < 200 AU. For the case where the planet frequency rises sharply with mass (alpha > 1.7), this occurs because all the planets detected to date have masses above 5 M-Jup, but planets of lower mass could easily have been detected by our search. If we ignore the beta Pic and HR 8799 planets (should they belong to a rare and distinct group), we find that <20% of debris disk stars have a >= 3 M-Jup planet beyond 10 AU, and beta < -0.8 and/or alpha < -1.5. Likewise, beta < -0.8 and/or a(max) < 125 AU. Our Bayesian constraints are not strong enough to reveal any dependence of the planet frequency on stellar host mass. Studies of transition disks have suggested that about 20% of stars are undergoing planet formation; our non-detections at large separations show that planets with orbital separation >40 AU and planet masses >3 M-Jup do not carve the central holes in these disks.

We report results of a direct imaging survey for giant planets around 80 members of the beta Pic, TW Hya, TucanaHorologium, AB Dor, and Hercules-Lyra moving groups, observed as part of the Gemini/NICI Planet-Finding Campaign. For this sample, we obtained median contrasts of Delta H = 13.9 mag at 1 '' in combined CH4 narrowband ADI+ SDI mode and median contrasts of.H = 15.1 mag at 2 '' in H-band ADI mode. We found numerous (> 70) candidate companions in our survey images. Some of these candidates were rejected as common-proper motion companions using archival data; we reobserved with Near-Infrared Coronagraphic Imager (NICI) all other candidates that lay within 400 AU of the star and were not in dense stellar fields. The vast majority of candidate companions were confirmed as background objects from archival observations and/or dedicated NICI Campaign followup. Four co-moving companions of brown dwarf or stellar mass were discovered in this moving group sample: PZ Tel B (36 +/- 6M(Jup), 16.4 +/- 1.0 AU), CD-35 2722B (31 +/- 8M(Jup), 67 +/- 4 AU), HD 12894B (0.46 +/- 0.08M(circle dot), 15.7 +/- 1.0 AU), and BD+ 07 1919C (0.20 +/- 0.03M(circle dot), 12.5 +/- 1.4 AU). From a Bayesian analysis of the achieved H band ADI and ASDI contrasts, using power-law models of planet distributions and hot-start evolutionary models, we restrict the frequency of 1-20M(Jup) companions at semi-major axes from 10-150 AU to < 18% at a 95.4% confidence level using DUSTY models and to < 6% at a 95.4% using COND models. Our results strongly constrain the frequency of planets within semi-major axes of 50 AU as well. We restrict the frequency of 1-20M(Jup) companions at semi-major axes from 10-50 AU to < 21% at a 95.4% confidence level using DUSTY models and to < 7% at a 95.4% using COND models. This survey is the deepest search to date for giant planets around young moving group stars.

We have carried out high contrast imaging of 70 young, nearby B and A stars to search for brown dwarf and planetary companions as part of the Gemini NICI Planet-Finding Campaign. Our survey represents the largest, deepest survey for planets around high-mass stars (approximate to 1.5-2.5 M-circle dot) conducted to date and includes the planet hosts beta Pic and Fomalhaut. We obtained follow-up astrometry of all candidate companions within 400 AU projected separation for stars in uncrowded fields and identified new low-mass companions to HD 1160 and HIP 79797. We have found that the previously known young brown dwarf companion to HIP 79797 is itself a tight (3 AU) binary, composed of brown dwarfs with masses 58(-20)(+21) M-Jup and 55(-19)(+20) M-Jup, making this system one of the rare substellar binaries in orbit around a star. Considering the contrast limits of our NICI data and the fact that we did not detect any planets, we use high-fidelity Monte Carlo simulations to show that fewer than 20% of 2 M-circle dot stars can have giant planets greater than 4 M-Jup between 59 and 460 AU at 95% confidence, and fewer than 10% of these stars can have a planet more massive than 10 M-Jup between 38 and 650 AU. Overall, we find that large-separation giant planets are not common around B and A stars: fewer than 10% of B and A stars can have an analog to the HR 8799 b (7 M-Jup, 68 AU) planet at 95% confidence. We also describe a new Bayesian technique for determining the ages of field B and A stars from photometry and theoretical isochrones. Our method produces more plausible ages for high-mass stars than previous age-dating techniques, which tend to underestimate stellar ages and their uncertainties.

We announce the discovery of a similar to 2 Jupiter-mass planet in an eccentric 11 yr orbit around the K7/M0 dwarf GJ 328. Our result is based on 10 years of radial velocity (RV) data from the Hobby-Eberly and Harlan J. Smith telescopes at McDonald Observatory, and from the Keck Telescope at Mauna Kea. Our analysis of GJ 328's magnetic activity via the Na I D features reveals a long-period stellar activity cycle, which creates an additional signal in the star's RV curve with amplitude 6-10 m s(-1). After correcting for this stellar RV contribution, we see that the orbit of the planet is more eccentric than suggested by the raw RV data. GJ 328b is currently the most massive, longest-period planet discovered around a low-mass dwarf.

Context. GJ 1214 is orbited by a transiting super-Earth-mass planet. It is a primary target for ongoing efforts to understand the emerging population of super-Earth-mass planets around M dwarfs, some of which are detected within the liquid water (habitable) zone of their host stars.

We report on the masses, sizes, and orbits of the planets orbiting 22 Kepler stars. There are 49 planet candidates around these stars, including 42 detected through transits and 7 revealed by precise Doppler measurements of the host stars. Based on an analysis of the Kepler brightness measurements, along with high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy, Doppler spectroscopy, and (for 11 stars) asteroseismology, we establish low false-positive probabilities (FPPs) for all of the transiting planets (41 of 42 have an FPP under 1%), and we constrain their sizes and masses. Most of the transiting planets are smaller than three times the size of Earth. For 16 planets, the Doppler signal was securely detected, providing a direct measurement of the planet's mass. For the other 26 planets we provide either marginal mass measurements or upper limits to their masses and densities; in many cases we can rule out a rocky composition. We identify six planets with densities above 5 g cm(-3), suggesting a mostly rocky interior for them. Indeed, the only planets that are compatible with a purely rocky composition are smaller than similar to 2 R-circle plus. Larger planets evidently contain a larger fraction of low-density material (H, He, and H2O).

We present the detection of five planets-Kepler-62b, c, d, e, and f-of size 1.31, 0.54, 1.95, 1.61 and 1.41 Earth radii (R-circle plus), orbiting a K2V star at periods of 5.7, 12.4, 18.2, 122.4, and 267.3 days, respectively. The outermost planets, Kepler-62e and -62f, are super-Earth-size (1.25 R-circle plus < planet radius <= 2.0 R-circle plus) planets in the habitable zone of their host star, respectively receiving 1.2 +/- 0.2 times and 0.41 +/- 0.05 times the solar flux at Earth's orbit. Theoretical models of Kepler-62e and -62f for a stellar age of similar to 7 billion years suggest that both planets could be solid, either with a rocky composition or composed of mostly solid water in their bulk.

A key test of the supernova triggering and injection hypothesis for the origin of the solar system's short-lived radioisotopes is to reproduce the inferred initial abundances of these isotopes. We present here the most detailed models to date of the shock wave triggering and injection process, where shock waves with varied properties strike fully three-dimensional, rotating, dense cloud cores. The models are calculated with the FLASH adaptive mesh hydrodynamics code. Three different outcomes can result: triggered collapse leading to fragmentation into a multiple protostar system; triggered collapse leading to a single protostar embedded in a protostellar disk; or failure to undergo dynamic collapse. Shock wave material is injected into the collapsing clouds through Rayleigh-Taylor fingers, resulting in initially inhomogeneous distributions in the protostars and protostellar disks. Cloud rotation about an axis aligned with the shock propagation direction does not increase the injection efficiency appreciably, as the shock parameters were chosen to be optimal for injection even in the absence of rotation. For a shock wave from a core-collapse supernova, the dilution factors for supernova material are in the range of similar to 10(-4) to similar to 3 x 10(-4), in agreement with recent laboratory estimates of the required amount of dilution for Fe-60 and Al-26. We conclude that a type II supernova remains as a promising candidate for synthesizing the solar system's short-lived radioisotopes shortly before their injection into the presolar cloud core by the supernova's remnant shock wave.