Turn-Key Green Astro-Comb.

寻找系外行星，即围绕太阳以外的恒星运行的行星，正在以快速的速度向前推进。这一领域的进步在很大程度上是由我们制造仪器的技术能力推动的，这些仪器可以测量恒星的光在其行星或行星将其拖向我们或远离我们时的微小径向速度变化，从而在恒星光谱中产生微小的“多普勒”位移，揭示出轨道上的同伴。反过来，这项技术又在很大程度上受到我们校准行星搜索仪器的能力的限制。定标可以识别出虚假误差，否则这些误差会模仿静止恒星的径向运动。这项提议旨在建立一个易于操作的校准系统，该系统将产生峰值输出在波长上间隔的光梳，具有足够精细的梳状尺度，以显著提高行星搜索仪器的当前技术水平。正在建造的校准器将是自动化的，旨在用于位于加那利群岛TNG望远镜的HARPS-N光谱仪。它将是一个“交钥匙”，易于操作的天文梳子，在可见光光谱(~500-620 nm)的中间产生输出，并将能够在任意长时间段内以10厘米/S的灵敏度进行精确的径向速度测量。该校准器将可供望远镜操作员和观察者使用，而不需要激光科学家在现场。由此产生的科学包括确定类地系外行星的质量，直接测量年轻宇宙的加速度，以及研究基本常数在宇宙时间尺度上的不变性。这个项目将培训学生和博士后研究人员在超快光学物理和天文仪器建造和观测的界面上的科学实践。将开发的技术将有助于在诸如少周期光脉冲、分子光谱学和生物成像等领域的广泛的跨学科和商业应用。该项目的资金由NSF的天文科学部通过其先进技术和仪器计划提供。

The search for exoplanets, or planets orbiting stars other than our sun, is moving forward at a rapid pace. Progress in this field is largely driven by our technological ability to build instruments that can measure tiny radial velocity changes of a star's light as its planet or planets tug it towards us or away from us, creating a tiny "Doppler" shift in the stellar spectrum revealing orbiting companions. This technology in turn is largely limited by our ability to calibrate our planet-hunting instruments. Calibration identifies spurious errors that would otherwise mimic radial motion in a stationary star. The proposal in this case aims to build an easy-to-operate calibration system that will generate a comb of light with peak outputs spaced in wavelength, with fine enough comb scale to significantly advance the current state of the art in planet hunting instrumentation.The calibrator being built will be automated, and is intended for use on the HARPS-N spectrograph located at the TNG telescope in the Canary Islands. It will be a "turn-key", easy-to-operate astro-comb, producing outputs in the middle of the visible spectrum (~500-620 nm), and will enable precision radial velocity measurements with sensitivity 10 cm/s over arbitrarily long periods of time. The calibrator will be usable by telescope operators and observers without the need for laser scientists to be on site. The science thus enabled includes determination of the mass of Earth-like exoplanets, direct measurements of the acceleration of the young universe, and investigation of the constancy of fundamental constants over cosmological time scales.This project will train students and postdoctoral researchers in scientific practices at the interface of ultrafast optical physics and astronomical instrument building and observation. The techniques to be developed will contribute to a wide array of interdisciplinary and commercial applications in fields such as few-cycle optical pulses, molecular spectroscopy, and bioimaging.Funding for this project is being provided by NSF's Division of Astronomical Sciences through its Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation program.