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IRTF/SPEX Observations of the Unusual Kepler Lightcurve System KIC8462852

We have utilized the NASA IRTF 3m SpeX instrument's high resolution spectral mode (Rayner et al. 2003) to observe and characterize the near-infrared flux emanating from the unusual Kepler lightcurve system KIC8462852. By comparing the resulting 0.8 to 4.2 um spectrum to a mesh of model photospheric spectra, the 6 emission line analysis of the Rayner et al. 2009 catalogue, and the 25 system collection of debris disks we have observed to date using SpeX under the Near InfraRed Debris disk Survey (NIRDS; Lisse et al. 2016), we have been able to additionally characterize the system. Within the errors of our measurements, this star looks like a normal solar abundance main sequence F1V to F3V dwarf star without any obvious traces of significant circumstellar dust or gas. Using Connelley&Greene's (2014) emission measures, we also see no evidence of significant ongoing accretion onto the star nor any stellar outflow away from it. Our results are inconsistent with large amounts of static close-in obscuring material or the unusual behavior of a YSO system, but are consistent with the favored episodic models of a Gyr old stellar system favored by Boyajian et al. (2015). We speculate that KIC8462852, like the approximately 1.4 Gyr old F2V system {\eta} Corvi (Wyatt et al. 2005, Chen et al. 2006, Lisse et al. 2012), is undergoing a Late Heavy Bombardment, but is only in its very early stages.


Introduction
KIC 8462852, also known as TYC 3162−665−1 or 2MASS J20061546+4427248, is a V ~12, K ~10.5 mag star located in the starfield of the Kepler space telescope primary mission (Borucki et al. 2010). This star was identified serendipitously by the Planet Hunters project (Fischer et al. 2012) for its unusual light-curve, characterized by deep dimming (down to below ∼ 20% of the stellar flux) lasting between 5 to 80 days, and with an irregular cadence and unusual profile (Boyajian et al. 2015, B15 hereafter). Since its discovery, KIC 8462852 has been the subject of intense multiwavelength monitoring, and has spurred numerous speculations about the nature of the bodies, or structures, responsible for the dimming of its visible flux (see e.g. Wright et al. 2015).
KIC 8462852 was carefully characterized in B15. High resolution (R ∼ 47000) spectroscopic observations obtained with the FIbre-fed Echelle Spectrograph (FIES) spectrograph at the Nordic Optical Telescope in La Palma, Spain, revealed that KIC 8462852 is a main sequence star with an effective temperature T eff = 6750±120 K, log g = 4.0±0.2 and solar metallicity, consistent with a F3 IV/V star. The spectral energy distribution of the source, obtained combining ground-based BV (RI)c and 2MASS (Skrutskie et al. 2006) JHK s photometry, with space-based NUV Galex (Morrissey et al. 2007) and mid-IR WISE (Wright et al. 2010) data, is also consistent with the spectroscopic identification of the source. Careful fitting of the star's spectral energy distribution (SED) with a stellar atmosphere model revealed that the source is located at a distance of 454 pc, with a reddening of E(B − V ) = 0.11 mag.
Interest in KIC 8462852 is related to the very unusual dips in its Kepler time series photometry.
One event near JD 2455626 (2011 March 5) lasting for ∼ 3 days, and a series of events starting from JD 2456343 (2013 February 19) lasting for ∼ 60 days, stand out for their unusual shape, lack of periodicity and depth. A search through the Kepler database for targets with similar dips turned out empty-handed. Realistic scenarios for the phenomena observed for this star are discussed at length in B15. They are related to the episodic occultation of the star by a circumstellar dust clump, either produced in the aftermath of a catastrophic collision in the system's asteroid belt or a giant impact in the system, or associated to a population of dust-enshrouded planetisimals, or produced by the breakout of a family of comets.
The parameter space for evaluating all these scenarios is constrained by the lack of any large excess above the expected stellar photospheric emission in the mid-IR from WISE (observing before the dimming events, Boyajian et al. 2015) and Spitzer/IRAC (observing after the Kepler dimming events, Marengo et al. 2015). However, only moderate constraints have been placed to date on the possibility of very close-in, hot (> 1000 K) circumstellar dust and gas within a fraction of an AU of the primary star by the stellar model fits to broad-band infrared photometry (Boyajian et al. 2015, Marengo et al. 2015. To broad-band photometry, a hot dust excess would appear as an increased Rayleigh-Jeans flux from the stellar photoshere, potentially masking any excess in the mid-IR as well. Such hot dust or gas, created for example by a roasting planet like WASP-12b, or by a remnant primordial disk (e.g. Sitko et al. 2012), could intercept a large solid angle of starlight and create the observed light curve minima, while re-irradiating the bulk of its energy in the near-IR, invisible to the WISE and Spitzer spacecraft.
Having recently completed a 25 system survey of northern debris disks using the NASA/IRTF 3m's SPEX high resolution spectrometer at 0.8 -5.0 um (Rayner et al. , 2009Vacca et al. 2003Vacca et al. , 2004Cushing et al. 2004), including systems showing NIR excesses at the 1-100% level above the photosphere, we were well placed to observe and characterize the system in the near-infrared. We thus requested and received Director's Discretionary Time from the IRTF to observe the system on 31 October 2015 in the same fashion as for our 25 Near InfraRed Debris disk Survey (NIRDS; Lisse et al. 2016) targets, and we report the results of our observations here.

Observations
We observed the HI. The SpeX instrument provides R = 2000 to 2500 resolution observations from 0.8 -5.0 um in two orders, termed SXD (for "short cross-dispersed") and LXD (for "long cross-dispersed") when configured for use using an 0.3" slit and the standard optics chain 2009). Our observational setup was identical to that used for our previous NIRDS debris disk studies, with two exceptions designed to maximize our chances of detecting this unknown, relatively faint source in the 2.5 total hours we had to conduct our observations (most NIRDS objects were of [K] = 2 to 8, while KIC 8462852 has a 2MASS K-magnitude of 10.54; Lisse et al. 2016). We utilized an 0.8" wide slit, and we doubled up on the spectral overlap between our SXD (0.8 -2.55 um) and LXD orders by utilizing the "short LXD" 1.67 -4.2 um mode. The result was to produce spectra with 8/3 the limiting sensitivity per on-target second of our normal survey, with spectral grasp of 0.8 -4.2 um and R= 800 -900. The nearby A0V star used in our SPEXTOOLS data reduction as a calibration standard  was the [K] = 6.4 star HD 192538. We observed the standard in SXD mode with a total on-target integration time of 480 sec, and in LXD mode for a total time of 960 sec. We observed KIC8462852 in SXD mode for a total time of 2400 sec and in LXD mode for a total time of 2340 sec. The instrument behavior was nominal and the summit weather was good, with clear skies, a relative humidity of 46% and outside temperature of 4.6 o C, a low CFHT Skyprobe camera attenuation value of 0, and a seeing of ~1". All objects were observed in ABBA nod mode to remove telescope and sky backgrounds. We observed KIC8462852 after meridian transit, and the position angle of the slit on the sky was continually adjusted from 160 o to 134 o to be perpendicular to the horizon, so the 3 magnitudes fainter M-star companion reported by Boyajian et al. 2015 at 2" to the East (PA 0 o ) would not have contributed significantly to our measurements.

Figure 1 -The as-observed
SpeX KIC8462852 spectrum in comparison to 8 F-stars of the NIRDS program with reported optical or IR debris disks. Blue points are the as-observed SpeX R=1000 to 2000 spectra, and red curves are solar abundance model Kurucz spectra reddened to the same amount of extinction. KIC 8462852's spectrum, 6 th from the top, with E(B-V) = 0.11, is consistent with purely stellar photospheric emission within the uncertainties of our measurements (~ 1% at 0.8 -2.55 um, and ~3% from 3.0 to 4.2 um). Also plotted on top of the KIC8462852 spectrum are the JHK/3.6/4.5 photometry (triangles) and the best-fit Phoenix photospheric model (green) from Marengo et al. (2015)

Results
KIC's spectrum is consistent with purely stellar photospheric emission, within the uncertainties of the measurement (Figure 1 (Chen et al. 2006). Instead, KIC8462852's spectrum is consistent with that of the purely photospheric systems HD 15745 and HD 15115. It may have a small fractional excess hidden in the noise of our short LXD measurement, but it is clearly less than the ~5% at 3.6 um and 2.5% at 4.5 um we have found for the 1.4 Gyr old HD 109085 (η Corvi) F2V system (Lisse et al. 2012, Lisse, Marengo, et al. 2016.

Discussion & Conclusions
As mentioned in the results section, there is a small mismatch between the stellar classification results obtained by a Rayner 6-line analysis and Kurucz model matching. The 6-line classification produces an F1V to F2V, with a very low absorption measure (reminiscent of the depression we saw for HR8789A in our NIRDS survey, a known λ Boo star, vs. our other solar abundance objects).
The best solar abundance Kurucz model match puts the star somewhere between F2V and F3V due to the flattening or turnover seen at 0.8-1.0 um. Improving our Kurucz models for non-solar abundance and/or rapid stellar rotation we think is likely to remove this small discrepancy, and we currently trust an F2V assignment based on the strengths of various NIR absorption lines best. Our assignment is close to, but slightly different, than the F3 IV/V classification reported by Boyajian et al. 2015. Our observations are consistent with a normal main sequence star without sufficiently large amounts of circumstellar gas or dust, or inflowing or outflowing material, to produce a SpeX detection via the scattering or thermal re-radiation of the star's insolation. Our observations have eliminated the possibility that there is a sizeable amount of very close-in, very hot (>1000 K) material along our line of sight to the star during the IRTF observations on 31 Oct 2015. Such a population of hot dust could obscure a large solid angle for a highly inclined, nearly edge-on system, and account for the up to 20% drops in the Kepler lightcurve flux, and was not previously ruled out, as obscuration by asteroidal or Kuiper Belt dust was, by the high resolution optical spectroscopy and multi-wavelength photometry presented in Boyajian et al. (2015). We can further state that there are none of the hallmarks of a young, pre-MS system for KIC8462852. It lacks the usual "flat", non-photospheric 2-4 um flux continuum and the gas emission lines seen in other YSO spectra from our NIRDS survey, like HD 51 Oph, HD 166191, or HD 165014.
Presuming we observed the system during its quiescent, or non-obscured, phase (a more than 99% probability, assuming the two major Kepler lightcurve dips reported by Boyajian et al. (2015) were 3 days wide and repeat every 750 days), any model for this system's strongly varying Kepler lightcurve will have to meet these baseline constraints on material outside the stellar photosphere.
I.e., the source of the obscuring material must be episodic in nature, with a localized source reservoir and sink, surrounding a mature, Gyr-old star. Otherwise the material would have been detected by re-radiation of intercepted starlight in the infrared wavelengths. [Our observations cannot, however, rule out any artificial structure with an abnormally low (<1%) emissivity pointed in our direction.] The cometary infall and breakup model most favored by Boyajian et al. 2015 fits our new constraints well. Considering the minimum amount of dust mass required to obscure 20% of a star's light, though, requires the conversion of a very large number of 1 km-radius comets (~10 5 or more) every 750 days into ephemeral 1 µm dust particles, the smearing out of >10 5 1 km-radius comets into > 100 µm radiation pressure stable heavy dust grains along an orbital trajectory, or the violent outgassing of one very big comet-like body of > 100 km radius (aka as a Centaur or KBO in our solar system) passing near the star's corona. These scenarios are interesting, in that we have been studying for some time now (using cold and warm Spitzer and SpeX) another mature, early-type Fstar with many similarities, the F2V η Corvi system (Lisse et al. 2012, Lisse, Marengo et al. 2016 in preparation). In 2005 Wyatt et al. drew the community's attention to this system, demonstrating how it had both a bright, inclined (~45 o to the line-of-sight) disk shaped Kuiper Belt to go along with its IRAS excess; in 2006 Chen et al. showed that the system had a very interesting mid-IR excess spectrum as well due to an inner belt of warmish dust at ~350K. Our 2012 follow-up work demonstrated a spectral connection between the warm dust and the cometary and KBO material in the system, and posited the formative mechanism as the infall from the Kuiper Belt of primitive icy bodies (either > 10 4 comets/yr or 1 large KBO of > 130 km radius) due to an ongoing Late Heavy Bombardment. But unlike KIC8462852, η Corvi also demonstrates an NIR excess flux above the stellar photosphere of a few % (Fig 1), and thus an inner belt or ring of permanent circumstellar material. Could these two systems be both undergoing Late Heavy Bombardments, but the one in KIC8462852 is just starting?

Acknowledgements
The SPEX data used in this work was obtained by the authors as Visiting Astronomers at the Infrared Telescope Facility, which is operated by the University of Hawaii under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Science Mission Directorate, Planetary Astronomy Program. Our NIRDS observations take advantage of and add to the SPEX spectral library of ~200 cool FGKM stars (Rayner et al. 2009), and we are deeply indebted to J. Rayner for providing his time and expertise to this project. The authors also wish to recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Mauna Kea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain.