Simulations of astrometric planet detection in Alpha Centauri by intensity interferometry

Abstract

Recent dynamical studies indicate that the possibility of an Earth-like planet around $\alpha$Cen A or B should be taken seriously. Such a planet, if it exists, would perturb the orbital astrometry by $<10\mu \mathrm{as}$, which is $10^{-6}$ of the separation between the two stars. We assess the feasibility of detecting such perturbations using ground-based intensity interferometry. We simulate a dedicated setup consisting of four 40-cm telescopes equipped with photon counters and correlators with time resolution $0.1\mathrm{ns}$, and a sort of matched filter implemented through an aperture mask. The astrometric error from one night of observing $\alpha$Cen AB is $\approx 0.5\mathrm{mas}$. The error decreases if longer observing times and multiple spectral channels are used, as $(channels\times nights{)}^{-1/2}$.

13 pages, 12 figures

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Cited by in corpus (1)

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