2026AJ....171...36H

The upcoming Roman Coronagraph will be the first high-contrast instrument in space capable of high-order wave front sensing and control technologies, a critical technology demonstration for the proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) that aims to directly image and characterize habitable exoEarths. The nominal Roman Coronagraph observing plan involves alternating observations of a science target and a bright, nearby reference star. High contrast is achieved using wave front sensing and control, also known as “digging a dark hole,” where performance depends on the properties of the reference star, requiring V < 3, a resolved stellar diameter <2 mas, and no stellar multiplicity. The imposed brightness and diameter criteria limit the sample of reference star candidates to high-mass main-sequence and post-main-sequence objects, where multiplicity rates are high. A future HWO coronagraph may have similarly restrictive criteria in reference star selection. From an exhaustive literature review of 95 stars, we identify an initial list of 40 primary and 18 reserve reference star candidates relevant to both the Roman Coronagraph and HWO. We present results from an initial survey of these candidates with high-resolution adaptive optics imaging and speckle interferometry and identify no new companions. We discuss the need for higher-contrast observations to sufficiently vet these reference star candidates prior to Roman Coronagraph observations, along with the implications of reference star criteria on observation planning for Roman and HWO.