The development and applications of a ground-based fiber nulling coronagraph

Martin, Stefan; Serabyn, Eugene; Liewer, K. M.; Loya, Frank; Mennesson, Bertrand; Hanot, Charles; Mawet, Dimitri

doi:10.1117/12.789484

Cited by 16 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…The Palomar Fiber Nuller (Haguenauer & Serabyn Vol. 719 2006;Martin et al 2008) and MAII (Buisset et al 2006) are examples of instruments with a simpler recombination system.…”

Section: Optical Throughput Limitationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combining Coronagraphy With Interferometry as a Tool for Measuring Stellar Diameters

Riaud¹,

Hanot²

2010

ApJ

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The classical approach for determining stellar angular diameters is to use interferometry and to measure fringe visibilities. Indeed, in the case of a source having a diameter larger than typically λ/6B, B being the interferometer's baseline and λ the wavelength of observation, the fringe contrast decreases. Similarly, it is possible to perform angular diameter determinations by measuring the stellar leakage from a coronagraphic device or a nulling interferometer. However, all coronagraphic devices (including those using nulling interferometry) are very sensitive to pointing errors and to the size of the source, two factors with significant impact on the rejection efficiency. In this work, we present an innovative idea for measuring stellar diameter variations, combining coronagraphy together with interferometry. We demonstrate that, using coronagraphic nulling statistics, it is possible to measure such variations for angular diameters down to ≈λ/40B with 1σ error-bars as low as ≈λ/1500B. For that purpose, we use a coronagraphic implementation on a two-aperture interferometer, a configuration that significantly increases the precision of stellar diameter measurements. Such a design offers large possibilities regarding the stellar diameter measurement of Cepheids or Mira stars, at a 60-80 μas level. We report on a simulation of a measurement applied to a typical Cepheid case, using the VLTI-UT interferometer on Paranal.

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“…The Palomar Fiber Nuller (Haguenauer & Serabyn Vol. 719 2006;Martin et al 2008) and MAII (Buisset et al 2006) are examples of instruments with a simpler recombination system.…”

Section: Optical Throughput Limitationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combining Coronagraphy With Interferometry as a Tool for Measuring Stellar Diameters

Riaud¹,

Hanot²

2010

ApJ

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“…The second method, called the numerical method, generates simulated distributions using the measured intensity and background distributions, together with simulated phase error sequences having normal distributions, according to Equation (8). For illustration, we apply our techniques to data obtained with the PFN, a deployable nearinfrared ( 2.16 μm) interferometric coronagraph developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and recently installed at the Palomar Hale telescope Mennesson et al 2006;Martin et al 2008). As described in the following sections, this method strongly reduces both statistical and systematic errors and can avoid the observation of calibrator stars (depending on the instrument).…”

Section: Fitting Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For symmetrically placed beams within a common aperture, polarization mismatches should be small compared to phase and intensity errors, and this approximation is valid down to null levels of 10 −4 or lower Martin et al 2008). 5 Neglecting this term, the measured null (Equation (8)) then consists of the sum of three terms multiplied by a fourth, and then the product is added to a fifth term.…”

Section: Analytical Model For the Statistical Distribution Of Null Vamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, our initial stellar observations indicate that this statistical approach does not require any observation of calibrator stars, at least down to null depth measurement accuracies as low as a few 10 −4 (the exact number depends on the instrument setup being used). In this paper, we first explain the principle and theory of this new statistical data analysis strategy, and then apply it to initial astronomical null data obtained with the Palomar Fiber Nuller (PFN; Mennesson et al 2006;Martin et al 2008), a nulling-based interferometric "coronagraph" developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. However, we emphasize that the new reduction method can potentially be applied to any null and/or visibility measurements in general.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Improving Interferometric Null Depth Measurements Using Statistical Distributions: Theory and First Results With the Palomar Fiber Nuller

Hanot¹,

Mennesson²,

Martin³

et al. 2011

ApJ

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A new "self-calibrated" statistical analysis method has been developed for the reduction of nulling interferometry data. The idea is to use the statistical distributions of the fluctuating null depth and beam intensities to retrieve the astrophysical null depth (or equivalently the object's visibility) in the presence of fast atmospheric fluctuations. The approach yields an accuracy much better (about an order of magnitude) than is presently possible with standard data reduction methods, because the astrophysical null depth accuracy is no longer limited by the magnitude of the instrumental phase and intensity errors but by uncertainties on their probability distributions. This approach was tested on the sky with the two-aperture fiber nulling instrument mounted on the Palomar Hale telescope. Using our new data analysis approach alone-and no observations of calibrators-we find that error bars on the astrophysical null depth as low as a few 10 −4 can be obtained in the near-infrared, which means that null depths lower than 10 −3 can be reliably measured. This statistical analysis is not specific to our instrument and may be applicable to other interferometers.

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“…In the case of nearby stars between 10 to 100 pc this corresponds to projected separations extending from 0.3 -3 AU to 1 -10 AU, essentially the highly interesting solar system parameter space. Thanks to an effective search space extending from ~35 mas (inner half transmission point) to ~275 mas (outer half transmission point), the Palomar Fiber Nuller (PFN) [1][2][3][4] is ideally suited to provide measurement at these missing scales. Performance-wise, the PFN delivers very deep on-sky nulls (< 0.1%) at K-band, and was already used to derive some of the best constraints on the presence of a companion within 2 AU of Vega.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring 5-40 AU scales around AB Aurigae with an upgraded Palomar Fiber Nuller

Kühn

Mennesson²,

Liewer

et al. 2014

SPIE Proceedings

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With a null precision of a few 10 -4 at all azimuth angles inside a field-of-view extending from 35 to 275 mas, the Palomar Fiber Nuller (PFN) is able to explore angular scales intermediate between those accessed by coronagraphic imaging and by long baseline interferometry. We first briefly summarize the recent performance improvements of the PFN (sensitivity, azimuthal coverage, duty cycle efficiency on-sky) over the 2011-2014 time period. Then we report on recent K-band observations of the young pre-main sequence star AB Aurigae obtained with the PFN. It is shown that a mean astrophysical null of 1.52% was detected around AB Aur at all probed azimuthal angles, and this inside a field-ofview corresponding to projected separations between 5 and 40 AU. In addition, we also report a slight ±0.2% modulation in addition to this average null level. The isotropic astrophysical null is indicative of circumstellar emission dominated by an azimuthally extended source, possibly a halo or one or more rings of dust. The modest azimuthal variation may be explained by some skewness or anisotropy of the spatially-extended source, e.g. with an elliptical or spiral geometry, or clumping, but it could also be due to the presence of a point-source located at a separation of ~120 mas (17AU) and carrying ~6*10-3 of the stellar flux.

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The development and applications of a ground-based fiber nulling coronagraph

Cited by 16 publications

References 3 publications

Combining Coronagraphy With Interferometry as a Tool for Measuring Stellar Diameters

Combining Coronagraphy With Interferometry as a Tool for Measuring Stellar Diameters

Improving Interferometric Null Depth Measurements Using Statistical Distributions: Theory and First Results With the Palomar Fiber Nuller

Exploring 5-40 AU scales around AB Aurigae with an upgraded Palomar Fiber Nuller

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