The James Webb Space Telescope will offer high-angular resolution observing capability in the near-infrared with masking interferometry on NIRISS, and coronagraphic imaging on NIRCam & MIRI. Full aperture kernel-phase based interferometry complements these observing modes, probing for companions at small separations while preserving the telescope throughput.
Our goal is to derive both theoretical and operational contrast detection limits for the kernel-phase analysis of JWST NIRISS full-pupil observations by using tools from hypothesis testing theory, applied to observations of faint brown dwarfs with this instrument, but the tools and methods introduced here are applicable in a wide variety of contexts.
We construct a statistically independent set of observables from aberration-robust kernel phases. Three detection tests based on these observable quantities are designed and analysed, all guaranteeing a constant false alarm rate for small phase aberrations. One of these tests, the Likelihood Ratio or Neyman-Pearson test, provides a theoretical performance bound for any detection test.
The operational detection method considered here is shown to exhibit only marginal power loss with respect to the theoretical bound. In principle, for the test set to a false alarm probability of 1%, companion at contrasts reaching 10^3 at separations of 200 mas around objects of magnitude 14.1 are detectable. With JWST NIRISS, contrasts of up to 10^4 at separations of 200 mas could be ultimately achieved, barring significant wavefront drift.
The proposed detection method is close to the ultimate bound and offers guarantees over the probability of making a false detection for binaries, as well as over the error bars for the estimated parameters of the binaries detectable by JWST NIRISS. This method is not only applicable to JWST NIRISS but to any imaging system with adequate sampling.
Detection of CO, H$_2$O, and OH in WASP-18b with JWST/NIRISS using Direct-Extracted Spectra and Cross-Correlation
University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学）；Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院）；Purple Mountain Observatory（紫金山天文台）；Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias（加那利天体物理研究所）；Universidad de La Laguna（拉各拉纳大学）
Calibration of an Analog-to-Digital Conversion Nonlinearity in JWST/NIRISS
University of Queensland（昆士兰大学）；University of Southern Queensland（南昆士兰大学）；Macquarie University（麦考瑞大学）；Leiden Observatory（莱顿天文台）；University of Sydney（悉尼大学）；Space Telescope Science Institute（太空望远镜科学研究所）；American Museum of Natural History（美国自然历史博物馆）
The JWST Early Release Science Program for Direct Observations of Exoplanetary Systems IV: NIRISS Aperture Masking Interferometry Performance and Lessons Learned
A Next-Generation Exoplanet Atmospheric Retrieval Framework for Transmission Spectroscopy (NEXOTRANS): Comparative Characterization for WASP-39 b Using JWST NIRISS, NIRSpec PRISM, and MIRI Observations
University of Sydney（悉尼大学）；Macquarie University（麦考瑞大学）；University of Victoria（维多利亚大学）；Flatiron Institute（平顶山研究所）；Space Telescope Science Institute（太空望远镜科学研究所）
First Demonstration of Kernel Phase Interferometry on JWST/MIRI: Prospects for Future Planet Searches Around Post Main Sequence Stars
University of California, Irvine（加州大学尔湾分校）；University of California, Santa Cruz（加州大学圣克鲁兹分校）；University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校）；University of Arizona（亚利桑那大学）
