Towards a Small Prototype Planet Finding Interferometer: The next step in planet finding and characterization in the infrared
W. C. Danchi, D. Deming, K. G. Carpenter, R. K. Barry, P. Hinz, K. J. Johnston, P. Lawson, O. Lay, J. D. Monnier, L. J. Richardson, S. Rinehart, W. Traub
备注：
8 pages, 4 figures, white paper for Exoplanet Task Force, March 2007
在过去的几年中，相当大的努力已经指向大规模（>> $1 Billion US) missions to detect and characterize earth-like planets around nearby stars, such as the Terrestrial Planet Finder Interferometer (TPF-I) and Darwin missions. However, technological and budgetary issues as well as shifting science priorities will likely prevent these missions from entering Phase A until the next decade. The secondary eclipse technique using the Spitzer Space Telescope has been used to directly measure the temperature and emission spectrum of extrasolar planets. However, only a small fraction of known extrasolar planets are in transiting orbits. Thus, a simplified nulling interferometer, which produces an artificial eclipse or occultation, and operates in the near- to mid-infrared (e.g. ~ 3 to 8 or 10 microns), can characterize the atmospheres of this much larger sample of the known but non-transiting exoplanets. Many other scientific problems can be addressed with a system like this, including imaging debris disks, active galactic nuclei, and low mass companions around nearby stars. We discuss the rationale for a probe-scale mission in the $ 6 - 8亿范围，我们在这里命名为小型原型行星发现干涉仪（SPPFI）。
英文摘要：
During the last few years, considerable effort has been directed towards large-scale (>> $1 Billion US) missions to detect and characterize earth-like planets around nearby stars, such as the Terrestrial Planet Finder Interferometer (TPF-I) and Darwin missions. However, technological and budgetary issues as well as shifting science priorities will likely prevent these missions from entering Phase A until the next decade. The secondary eclipse technique using the Spitzer Space Telescope has been used to directly measure the temperature and emission spectrum of extrasolar planets. However, only a small fraction of known extrasolar planets are in transiting orbits. Thus, a simplified nulling interferometer, which produces an artificial eclipse or occultation, and operates in the near- to mid-infrared (e.g. ~ 3 to 8 or 10 microns), can characterize the atmospheres of this much larger sample of the known but non-transiting exoplanets. Many other scientific problems can be addressed with a system like this, including imaging debris disks, active galactic nuclei, and low mass companions around nearby stars. We discuss the rationale for a probe-scale mission in the $600-800 Million range, which we name here as the Small Prototype Planet Finding Interferometer (SPPFI).
Direct multi-wavelength limb-darkening measurements of three late-type giants with the Navy Prototype Optical Interferometer
我们提出了直接测量的边缘变暗的强度配置文件的晚型巨星HR 5299，HR 7635，和HR 8621获得的海军原型光学干涉仪（NPOI）在洛厄尔天文台。使用了长度为18.9 m、22.2 m和37.5 m的三角形基线。我们利用了超过第一个最小值的平方可见度振幅，以及覆盖~650 nm至~850 nm波长范围的多达10个光谱通道中的三倍振幅和相位。我们发现，我们的数据可以最好地描述了无特征的对称边缘变暗的磁盘模型，而均匀的磁盘和完全变暗的磁盘模型可以被拒绝。我们推导出这三颗恒星的高精度角边缘变暗直径，分别为7.44 mas +/- 0.11 mas，6.18 mas +/- 0.07 mas和6.94 mas +/- 0.12 mas。使用HIPPARCOS松弛法，我们分别测定了114 R $_\odot \pm $ 13 R $_\odot$、56 R $_\odot \pm $ 4 R $_\odot$和98 R $_\odot \pm $ 9 R $_\odot$的线性肢体变暗半径。我们比较我们的数据库鲁茨恒星模型大气的网格，与他们得出的有效温度和表面重力没有额外的信息，并找到协议与独立的估计来自经验校准和热通量。这证实了模型预测和对边缘变暗效应的直接观察的一致性。
We study the sensitivities of space infrared interferometers. We formulate the signal-to-noise ratios of infrared images obtained by aperture synthesis in the presence of source shot noise, background shot noise and detector read noise. We consider the case in which n beams are pairwise combined at n(n-1)/2 detectors, and the case in which all the n beams are combined at a single detector. We apply the results to future missions, Terrestrial Planet Finder and Darwin. We also discuss the potential of a far-infrared interferometer for a deep galaxy survey.
