High-contrast Imaging with Fizeau Interferometry: the Case of Altair*
Abstract

The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) has two 8.4 m primary mirrors that produce beams that can be combined coherently in a “Fizeau” interferometric mode. In principle, the Fizeau point-spread function (PSF) enables the probing of structure at a resolution up to three times better than that of the adaptive-optics-corrected PSF of a single 8.4 m telescope. In this work, we examined the nearby star Altair (5.13 pc, type A7V, hundreds of Myr to ≈1.4 Gyr) in the Fizeau mode with the LBT at Brα(4.05μm) and carried out angular differential imaging to search for companions. This work presents the first filled-aperture LBT Fizeau science data set to benefit from a correcting mirror that provides active phase control. In the analysis of theλ/Dangular regime, the sensitivity of the data set is down to ≈0.5Mat 1″ for a 1.0 Gyr system. This sensitivity remains limited by the small amount of integration time, which is in turn limited by the instability of the Fizeau PSF. However, in the Fizeau fringe regime we attain sensitivities of Δm≈ 5 at 0.″2 and put constraints on companions of 1.3Mdown to an inner angle of ≈0.″15, closer than any previously published direct imaging of Altair. This analysis more »

Authors:
; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Publication Date:
NSF-PAR ID:
10363116
Journal Name:
The Astronomical Journal
Volume:
163
Issue:
2
Page Range or eLocation-ID:
Article No. 62
ISSN:
0004-6256
Publisher:
DOI PREFIX: 10.3847
National Science Foundation
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