Vortex fiber nulling for exoplanet observations: conceptual design, theoretical performance, and initial scientific yield predictions
Vortex fiber nulling for exoplanet observations: conceptual design, theoretical performance, and initial scientific yield predictions
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用于系外行星观测的涡旋光纤归零：概念设计、理论性能和初始科学产量预测
DOI：
10.1117/12.2528555
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发表时间：
2019
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
N. Batalha
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
G. Ruane;D. Echeverri;N. Jovanovic;D. Mawet;E. Serabyn;J. Wallace;Jason J. Wang;N. Batalha
涡旋纤维零化（VFN）是一种可以用地面和空间望远镜探测和表征小角距（0.5-2 λ/D）系外行星的方法。由于视场在大多数日冕仪的内部工作角内，调零可以访问非凌日行星，否则它们太靠近它们的星星，无法通过其他方式进行光谱表征，从而显着增加了已知的系外行星的数量，可用于近红外光谱的直接光谱。此外，VFN的目标行星在较近的轨道上，往往有更有利的行星到星星通量比在反射光。在这里，我们提出的VFN的理论和应用，表明光学性能是近似等效的各种实现和光圈形状，并讨论了吞吐量和工程要求之间的权衡使用数值模拟。我们比较矢量和标量的方法，最后，表明光束整形光学可用于显着提高行星光的吞吐量。基于理论性能，我们估计了已知行星和理论系外地球的数量，这些行星和理论系外地球可以通过与未来30米望远镜上的高分辨率光谱仪相连的VFN仪器获得。
Vortex fiber nulling (VFN) is a method that may enable the detection and characterization of exoplanets at small angular separations (0.5-2 λ/D) with ground- and space-based telescopes. Since the field of view is within the inner working angle of most coronagraphs, nulling accesses non-transiting planets that are otherwise too close to their star for spectral characterization by other means, thereby significantly increasing the number of known exoplanets available for direct spectroscopy in the near-infrared. Furthermore, VFN targets planets on closer-in orbits which tend to have more favorable planet-to-star flux ratios in reflected light. Here, we present the theory and applications of VFN, show that the optical performance is approximately equivalent for a variety of implementations and aperture shapes, and discuss the trade-offs between throughput and engineering requirements using numerical simulations. We compare vector and scalar approaches and, finally, show that beam shaping optics may be used to significantly improve the throughput for planet light. Based on theoretical performance, we estimate the number of known planets and theoretical exoEarths accessible with a VFN instrument linked to a high-resolution spectrograph on the future Thirty Meter Telescope.