Marie S.-Curie Actions: SPICES

Funded by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) as an European Fellow from 2023 June to 2025 May, I have led the Statistics-driven Planet Imaging in Circumstellar Environments (SPICES) 🔗 project on

1. Understanding the formation mechanism of spiral arms in protoplanetary disks. See "Spiral Arms & 'Missing' Planets" page's SAFFRON project.

   • Peer-reviewed publications under this category

     1. Xie, C., Ren, B., Dong, R., et al. 2023, "Dynamical detection of a companion driving a spiral arm in a protoplanetary disk". Astronomy and Astrophysics, 675, L1 (doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202346305). Data publicly available at: CDS.

     2. Ren, B., Xie, C., Benisty, M., et al. 2024, "A Companion in V1247 Ori Supported by Motion in the Pattern of the Spiral Arm". Astronomy and Astrophysics, 681, L2 (doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202348114). Data publicly available at: CDS.

     3. Xie, C., Xie, C., Ren, B., et al. 2024, "Disk Evolution Study Through Imaging of Nearby Young Stars (DESTINYS): Dynamical Evidence of a Spiral-Arm-Driving and Gap-Opening Protoplanet from SAO 206462 Spiral Motion". Universe, 10, 465 (doi: 10.3390/universe10120465). Data publicaly available at: CDS.

2. Authentic recovery of circumstellar systems using advanced statistical methods. See "High Contrast Imaging" page's data imputation on VLT/SPHERE data.

   • Peer-reviewed publications under this category

     1. Ren, B., Benisty, M., Ginski, C., et al. 2023, "Protoplanetary disks in Ks-band total intensity and polarized light". Astronomy and Astrophysics, 680, A114 (doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202347353). Data publicly available at: CDS.

3. Extraction and characterization of circumstellar systems in reflectance spectroscopy. This builds upon data imputation and tries to interpret the composition of planetary system building blocks.

   • Peer-reviewed publications under this category

     1. Zhong, H., Ren, B., Ma, B., et al. 2024, "Multi-band reflectance and shadowing of RX J1604.3-2130 protoplanetary disk in scattered light".  Astronomy and Astrophysics, 684, A168 (doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202348874). Data publicly available at: CDS.

4. General application, as well as development, of statistical methods to astronomical research.

   • Peer-reviewed publications on science

     1. Zhou, X., Herczeg, G. J., ..., ..., Ren, B. 2023, "Walkaway star candidates in IC 348 and their possible birthplaces". The Astrophysical Journal, 955, 11.

     2. Ren, B., Fogarty, K., Debes, J. H., et al. 2024, "3C 273 Host Galaxy with Hubble Space Telescope Coronagraphy".  Astronomy and Astrophysics, 683, L5. Data publicly available at: CDS.

     3. Wallack, N. L., Ruffio, J.-B., Ruane, G., Ren, B., et al. 2024, "A Survey of Protoplanetary Disks Using the Keck/NIRC2 Vortex Coronagraph". The Astronomical Journal, 168, 78. 

   • Peer-reviewed publications on instrumentation/methods

     1. Ren, B. 2023, "Karhunen-Loève Data Imputation in High Contrast Imaging". Astronomy and Astrophysics, 679, A18 (doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202347354). Data publicly available at: CDS.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 101103114.