Kernel-phases for high-contrast detection beyond the resolution limit

Abstract

The detection of high contrast companions at small angular separation appears feasible in conventional direct images using the self-calibration properties of interferometric observable quantities. In the high-Strehl regime, available from space borne observatories and using AO in the mid-infrared, quantities comparable to the closure-phase that are used with great success in non-redundant masking inteferometry, can be extracted from direct images, even taken with a redundant aperture. These new phase-noise immune observable quantities, called Kernel-phases, are determined a-priori from the knowledge of the geometry of the pupil only. Re-analysis of HST/NICMOS archive and other ground based AO images, using this new Kernel-phase algorithm, demonstrates the power of the method, and its ability to detect companions at the resolution limit and beyond.

7 pages, 4 figures, 2011 SPIE conference proceedings

References in corpus (4)

• Mapping the Shores of the Brown Dwarf Desert I.: Upper Scorpius
• Kernel-Phase in Fizeau Inteferometry
• Precision Masses of the low-mass binary system GJ 623
• Visual orbit of GJ 164 AB

Cited by in corpus (5)

• The Asymmetric Pupil Fourier Wavefront Sensor
• Dancing in the Dark: New Brown Dwarf Binaries from Kernel Phase Interferometry
• An image-plane algorithm for JWST's non-redundant aperture mask data
• Kernel Phase and Coronagraphy with Automatic Differentiation
• The unlikely rise of masking interferometry: leading the way with 19th century technology