Title: Gemini/GMOS Transmission Spectral Survey: Complete Optical Transmission Spectrum of the hot Jupiter WASP-4b,
Abstract: We present the complete optical transmission spectrum of the hot Jupiter
WASP-4b from 440-940 nm at R ~ 400-1500 obtained with the Gemini Multi-Object
Spectrometers (GMOS); this is the first result from a comparative
exoplanetology survey program of close-in gas giants conducted with GMOS.
WASP-4b has an equilibrium temperature of 1700 K and is favorable to study in
transmission due to a large scale height (370 km). We derive the transmission
spectrum of WASP-4b using 4 transits observed with the MOS technique. We
demonstrate repeatable results across multiple epochs with GMOS, and derive a
combined transmission spectrum at a precision about twice above photon noise,
which is roughly equal to to one atmospheric scale height. The transmission
spectrum is well fitted with a uniform opacity as a function of wavelength. The
uniform opacity and absence of a Rayleigh slope from molecular hydrogen suggest
that the atmosphere is dominated by clouds with condensate grain size of ~1 um.
This result is consistent with previous observations of hot Jupiters since
clouds have been seen in planets with similar equilibrium temperatures to
WASP-4b. We describe a custom pipeline that we have written to reduce GMOS
time-series data of exoplanet transits, and present a thorough analysis of the
dominant noise sources in GMOS, which primarily consist of wavelength- and
time- dependent displacements of the spectra on the detector, mainly due to a
lack of atmospheric dispersion correction.