Title: Gemini-LIGHTS: a survey of Herbig Ae/Be and massive T-Tauri protoplanetary disks imaged with Gemini Planet Imager

We present a sample of 44 protoplanetary disks from the Gemini ­— Large Imaging with Gpi Herbig/T-tauri Survey (Gemini-LIGHTS), which observed bright Herbig Ae/Be stars and T-Tauri stars to search for signatures of disk evolution and evidence of ongoing planet formation. We utilized high-contrast polarized imagery in J- and H-bands with the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) at the Gemini South Observatory. Targets in the sample were selected based on their near- and mid-infrared colors selecting a less-biased number of transitional, pre-transitional, and full disks. We detect scattered light signatures around 75% of our 44 targets. We also detected point-like companions for 47% of the targets within the 2” field of view, including 1 super-Jupiter mass candidate and 4 brown dwarf candidates. We searched for correlations between the polarized flux with system parameters, finding a few clear trends: far-IR excess in the SED correlates with polarized flux, presence of a companion star drastically reduces the scattered light levels, and systems hosting disks with ring structures have less than 3 solar masses. Our sample also included four hot, dusty “FS CMa” systems and we detected large-scale (>100 au) scattered light around each, signs of extreme youth for these enigmatic systems. Data from this survey is publicly available using a new FITS file standard jointly developed with members of the VLT/SPHERE team.