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Research activities

Research projects

Here is a brief description of the research projects in which I am involved, all aim at studying stellar magnetic fields.

MagIcS

Most research projects in which I am involved are connected to the MagIcS initiative: "a Magnetic Investigation of various classes of Stars" primarily based on high-resolution spectropolarimetry. MagIcS started in 2004 with the commissionning of the spectropolarimeter ESPaDOnS at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope which opened a new window on stellar magnetism.

Bcool

The Bcool project is an international collaboration to study the dynamo generation of magnetic fields in cool stars. I mostly focus on main sequence M dwarfs.

BinaMIcS

BinaMIcS is a international project that aims at studying the phenomena of stellar magnetism under the influence of the physical processes and interactions occuring in close binary systems. Within BinaMIcS I am involved in the analysis of cool stars.

MaTYSSE

The MaTYSSE project adresses the role of stellar magnetic fields in the formation and early evolution of solar-type stars and their planetary systems through characterization of the magnetic fields of weak-lined T Tauri stars and a statical study of hot Jupiers orbiting protostars.

Toupies

Toupies is an ANR-funded project (PI: J. Bouvier) aimed at Understanding the angular momentum evolution of solar-type stars from T Tauri phase to the late main sequence. In particular, I am interested in the properties of stellar magnetic fields during the pre-main sequence phase.

Pale Red Dot

Pale Red Dot is a project aimed at detecting planets orbiting the closest star in the solar vicinity: Proxima Centauri. This project is complemented with a blog on which a journal of the observing campaign is published along with numerous outreach articles addressing exoplanets and stellar physics, written by specialists from all over the world.

My favourite instruments

I study stellar magnetic fields with high-resolution spectropolarimetry, the main instruments I have used for my work are listed below.

ESPaDOns

ESPaDOnS stands for "Echelle SpectroPolarimetric Device for the Observation of Stars". This high-resolution spectropolarimeter, available at the 3.6 m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) since 2005, is presently the best instrument to carry out spectropolarimetric studies of M dwarfs.

NARVAL

NARVAL is the twin instrument of ESPaDOnS installed since 2006 at the 2-m Télescope Bernard Lyot at the Pic du Midi observatory in the french Pyrenees.

HARPSpol

HARPS (High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher) is a very stable spectrograph installed on the 3.6 m telescope at ESO's La Silla observatory in Chile. HARPSpol is the name of the polarimetric mode of HARPS, available since 2010.

Instrument projects

I contribute to the science preparation of next generation spectropolarimeters.

SPIRou

SPIRou is the next generation spectropolarimeter for CFHT. It will combine the great spectropolarimetric capabilities of ESPaDOnS with the very high stability of HARPS transposed to the near-infrared. First light is planned for 2017.

Arago/UVMag

Arago/UVMag is a project of spaceborne observatory able to perform simultaneous spectropolarimetry in the UV and in the visible, it will soon be proposed to ESA as an M-class mission.