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Register a new userPhase Referencing in Optical Interferometry
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Added by
Mercedes Esteves Filho
Publication date
2008
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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One of the aims of next generation optical interferometric instrumentation is to be able to make use of information contained in the visibility phase to construct high dynamic range images. Radio and optical interferometry are at the two extremes of phase corruption by the atmosphere. While in radio it is possible to obtain calibrated phases for the science objects, in the optical this is currently not possible. Instead, optical interferometry has relied on closure phase techniques to produce images. Such techniques allow only to achieve modest dynamic ranges. However, with high contrast objects, for faint targets or when structure detail is needed, phase referencing techniques as used in radio interferometry, should theoretically achieve higher dynamic ranges for the same number of telescopes. Our approach is not to provide evidence either for or against the hypothesis that phase referenced imaging gives better dynamic range than closure phase imaging. Instead we wish to explore the potential of this technique for future optical interferometry and also because image reconstruction in the optical using phase referencing techniques has only been performed with limited success. We have generated simulated, noisy, complex visibility data, analogous to the signal produced in radio interferometers, using the VLTI as a template. We proceeded with image reconstruction using the radio image reconstruction algorithms contained in AIPS IMAGR (CLEAN algorithm). Our results show that image reconstruction is successful in most of our science cases, yielding images with a 4 milliarcsecond resolution in K band. (abridged)
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GRAVITY is a new instrument to coherently combine the light of the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope Interferometer to form a telescope with an equivalent 130 m diameter angular resolution and a collecting area of 200 m$^2$. The instrument comprises fiber fed integrated optics beam combination, high resolution spectroscopy, built-in beam analysis and control, near-infrared wavefront sensing, phase-tracking, dual beam operation and laser metrology [...]. This article gives an overview of GRAVITY and reports on the performance and the first astronomical observations during commissioning in 2015/16. We demonstrate phase tracking on stars as faint as m$_K$ ~ 10 mag, phase-referenced interferometry of objects fainter than m$_K$ ~ 15 mag with a limiting magnitude of m$_K$ ~ 17 mag, minute long coherent integrations, a visibility accuracy of better than 0.25 %, and spectro-differential phase and closure phase accuracy better than 0.5{deg}, corresponding to a differential astrometric precision of better than 10 microarcseconds ({mu}as). The dual-beam astrometry, measuring the phase difference of two objects with laser metrology, is still under commissioning. First observations show residuals as low as 50 {mu}as when following objects over several months. We illustrate the instrument performance with the observations of archetypical objects for the different instrument modes. Examples include the Galactic Center supermassive black hole and its fast orbiting star S2 for phase referenced dual beam observations and infrared wavefront sensing, the High Mass X-Ray Binary BP Cru and the Active Galactic Nucleus of PDS 456 for few {mu}as spectro-differential astrometry, the T Tauri star S CrA for a spectro-differential visibility analysis, {xi} Tel and 24 Cap for high accuracy visibility observations, and {eta} Car for interferometric imaging with GRAVITY.
We report the results of a phase-referencing study aimed at uncovering precession of the VLBI jet of BL Lac. The observations were conducted at 8, 15, 22, and 43 GHz and consist of seven epochs spanning about two years. We investigated the change in the absolute position of BL Lacs radio core by means of phase-referencing with two nearby sources, 2151+431 and 2207+374. The shift in the position of the core perpendicular to the jet is a signature of precession. However, the periodic variations with an amplitude of ~0.15 mas and a period of 1 year can be attributed to seasonal weather variations. We also detect a trend in position of the core on the scale of ~0.1 mas over two years.
We present the results of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations using the phase reference technique to detect weak Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) cores in the Virgo cluster. Our observations were carried out using the Korean VLBI Network (KVN). We have selected eight representative radio galaxies, seven Virgo cluster members and one galaxy (NGC 4261) that is likely to be in the background. The selected galaxies are located in a range of density regions showing various morphology in 1.4 GHz continuum. Since half of our targets are too weak to be detected at K-band we applied a phase referencing technique to extend the source integration time by calibrating atmospheric phase fluctuations. We discuss the results of the phase referencing method at high frequency observations and we compare them with self-calibration on the relatively bright AGNs, such as M87, M84 and NGC 4261. In this manuscript we present the radio intensity maps at 22 GHz of the Virgo cluster sample while we demonstrate for first time the capability of KVN phase referencing technique.
We show that as many as ~50 quasars with at least mJy-level expected flux density can be pre-selected as potential in-beam phase-reference targets for ASTRO-G. Most of them have never been imaged with VLBI. These sources are located around strong, compact calibrator sources that have correlated flux density >100 mJy on the longest VLBA baselines at 8.4 GHz. All the targets lie within 12 from the respective reference source. The basis of this selection is an efficient method to identify potential weak VLBI target quasars simply using optical and low-resolution radio catalogue data. The sample of these dominantly weak sources offers a good opportunity for a statistical study of their radio structure with unprecedented angular resolution at 8.4 GHz.
Non-classical states of light find applications in enhancing the performance of optical interferometric experiments, with notable example of gravitational wave-detectors. Still, the presence of decoherence hinders significantly the performance of quantum-enhanced protocols. In this review, we summarize the developments of quantum metrology with particular focus on optical interferometry and derive fundamental bounds on achievable quantum-enhanced precision in optical interferometry taking into account the most relevant decoherence processes including: phase diffusion, losses and imperfect interferometric visibility. We introduce all the necessary tools of quantum optics as well as quantum estimation theory required to derive the bounds. We also discuss the practical attainability of the bounds derived and stress in particular that the techniques of quantum-enhanced interferometry which are being implemented in modern gravitational wave detectors are close to the optimal ones.
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