Connecting polarization aberrations to exoplanet yield calculations for HWO

The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) aims to enable the detection and characterization of Earth-like planets around Sun-like stars to search for possible signs of life elsewhere in our universe. This requires an incredibly sensitive coronagraph instrument that suppresses the light from the star by a factor of ten billion, and teams must contend with error terms that have not previously limited high-contrast instrumentation at lower levels of starlight suppression. Polarization aberrations are one such source of error that is particularly problematic for coronagraphy on a large space telescope. Optical rays in large, compact astronomical observatories can have large changes in angle of incidence over the beam, which induce polarization aberrations that decrease sensitivities to faint signals at small angular separations. Limiting variation in angles of incidence along the optical path could lead to larger, less stable observatories. This could negatively impact the total number of exo-Earths HWO would be able to detect. This study links open-source physical optics modeling tools to an exoplanet yield optimizer to understand how polarization aberrations influence science return for HWO. We also explore how polarization aberrations scale with change in angle of incidence, which could drive the primary-secondary mirror distance. We report on mitigation strategies to minimize the presence of polarization aberrations in HWO.