Article (Scientific journals)
Improving Interferometric null depth measurements using statistical distributions: theory and first results with the Palomar Fiber Nuller
Hanot, Charles; Mennesson, Bertrand; Martin, Stefan et al.
2011In Astrophysical Journal, 729 (2), p. 110
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
 

Files


Full Text
nulling-statistics.pdf
Author preprint (633.16 kB)
Download

All documents in ORBi are protected by a user license.

Send to



Details



Keywords :
instrumentation: high angular resolution; instrumentation: interferometers; methods: data analysis; methods: statistical
Abstract :
[en] 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.
Disciplines :
Space science, astronomy & astrophysics
Author, co-author :
Hanot, Charles ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Astroph. extragalactique et observations spatiales (AEOS)
Mennesson, Bertrand
Martin, Stefan
Liewer, Kurt
Loya, Frank
Mawet, Dimitri
Riaud, Pierre
Absil, Olivier  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Astroph. extragalactique et observations spatiales (AEOS)
Serabyn, Eugene
Language :
English
Title :
Improving Interferometric null depth measurements using statistical distributions: theory and first results with the Palomar Fiber Nuller
Publication date :
11 March 2011
Journal title :
Astrophysical Journal
ISSN :
0004-637X
eISSN :
1538-4357
Publisher :
University of Chicago Press, Chicago, United States - Illinois
Volume :
729
Issue :
2
Pages :
110
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Available on ORBi :
since 17 February 2011

Statistics


Number of views
83 (6 by ULiège)
Number of downloads
417 (7 by ULiège)

Scopus citations®
 
52
Scopus citations®
without self-citations
18
OpenCitations
 
43

Bibliography


Similar publications



Contact ORBi