Christoph U. Keller

Evaluation of phase-diversity techniques for solar-image restoration

Phase-diversity techniques provide a novel observational method for overcomming the effects of turbulence and instrument-induced aberrations in ground-based astronomy. Two implementations of phase-diversity techniques that differ with regard to noise model, estimator, optimization algorithm, method of regularization, and treatment of edge effects are described. Reconstructions of solar granulation derived by applying these two implementations to common data sets are shown to yield nearly identical images. For both implementations, reconstructions from phase-diverse speckle data (involving multiple realizations of turbulence) are shown to be superior to those derived from conventional phase-diversity data (involving a single realization). Phase-diverse speckle reconstructions are shown to achieve near diffraction-limited resolution and are validated by internal and external consistency tests, including a comparison with a reconstruction using a well-accepted speckle-imaging method.

Combining high-dispersion spectroscopy with high contrast imaging : Probing rocky planets around our nearest neighbors

Context. Ground-based high-dispersion (R 100,000) spectroscopy (HDS) is proving to be a powerful technique with which to characterize extrasolar planets. The planet signal is distilled from the bright starlight, combining spectral and time-di erential filtering techniques. In parallel, high-contrast imaging (HCI) is developing rapidly, aimed at spatially separating the planet from the star. While HDS is limited by the overwhelming noise from the host star, HCI is limited by residual quasi-static speckles. Both techniques currently reach planet-star contrast limits down to 10 5 , albeit for very di erent types of planetary systems. Aims. In this work, we discuss a way to combine HDS and HCI (HDS+HCI). For a planet located at a resolvable angular distance from its host star, the starlight can be reduced up to several orders of magnitude using adaptive optics and/or coronography. In addition, the remaining starlight can be filtered out using high-dispersion spectroscopy, utilizing the significantly di erent (or Doppler shifted) high-dispersion spectra of the planet and star. In this way, HDS+HCI can in principle reach contrast limits of 10 5 10 5 , although in practice this will be limited by photon noise and/or sky-background. In contrast to current direct imaging techniques, such as Angular Di erential Imaging and Spectral Di erential Imaging, it will work well at small working angles and is much less sensitive to speckle noise. For the discovery of previously unknown planets HDS+HCI requires a high-contrast adaptive optics system combined with a high-dispersion R 100,000 integral field spectrograph (IFS). This combination currently does not exist, but is planned for the European Extremely Large Telescope. Methods. We present simulations of HDS+HCI observations with the E-ELT, both probing thermal emission from a planet at infrared wavelengths, and starlight reflected o a planet atmosphere at optical wavelengths. For the infrared simulations we use the baseline parameters of the E-ELT and METIS instrument, with the latter combining extreme adaptive optics with an R=100,000 IFS. We include realistic models of the adaptive optics performance and atmospheric transmission and emission. For the optical simulation we also assume R=100,000 IFS with adaptive optics capabilities at the E-ELT. Results. One night of HDS+HCI observations with the E-ELT at 4.8 m ( = 0:07 m) can detect a planet orbiting Cen A with a radius of R=1.5 Rearth and a twin-Earth thermal spectrum of Teq=300 K at a signal-to-noise (S/N) of 5. In the optical, with a Strehl ratio performance of 0.3, reflected light from an Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of Proxima Centauri can be detected at a S/N of 10 in the same time frame. Recently, first HDS+HCI observations have shown the potential of this technique by determining the spin-rotation of the young massive exoplanet Pictoris b. Conclusions. The exploration of the planetary systems of our neighbor stars is of great scientific and philosophical value. The HDS+HCI technique has the potential to detect and characterize temperate rocky planets in their habitable zones. Exoplanet scientists should not shy away from claiming a significant fraction of the future ELTs to make such observations possible.

SOLIS: an innovative suite of synoptic instruments

SOLIS (Synoptic Optical Long-term Investigations of the Sun) is a suite of three innovative instruments under construction that will greatly improve ground-based synoptic solar observations. The Vector Spectromagnetograph (VSM) is a compact, high-throughput vector-polarimeter with an active secondary mirror, an actively controlled grating spectrograph, and two high-speed cameras with silicon-on-CMOS-multiplexer hybrid focal plane arrays. It will measure the magnetic field strength and direction over the full solar disk within 15 minutes. The Full-Disk Patrol (FDP) takes full-disk solar intensity and Doppler images in various spectral lines and in the continuum at a high cadence through liquid-crystal tuned birefringent filters. The Integrated Sunlight Spectrometer (ISS) uses a fiber-fed spectrograph to measure minute changes of the Sun-as-a-star in many spectral lines. A high degree of automation and remote control provides fast user access to data and flexible interaction with the data-collection process. SOLIS is currently in the final assembly phase and will become operational early in 2003.

Spectral modulation for full linear polarimetry

Linear (spectro) polarimetry is usually performed using separate photon flux measurements after spatial or temporal polarization modulation. Such classical polarimeters are limited in sensitivity and accuracy by systematic effects and noise. We describe a spectral modulation principle that is based on encoding the full linear polarization properties of light in its spectrum. Such spectral modulation is obtained with an optical train of an achromatic quarter-wave retarder, an athermal multiple-order retarder, and a polarizer. The emergent spectral modulation is sinusoidal with its amplitude scaling with the degree of linear polarization and its phase scaling with the angle of linear polarization. The large advantage of this passive setup is that all polarization information is, in principle, contained in a single spectral measurement, thereby eliminating all differential effects that potentially create spurious polarization signals. Since the polarization properties are obtained through curve fitting, the susceptibility to noise is relatively low. We provide general design options for a spectral modulator and describe the design of a prototype modulator. Currently, the setup in combination with a dedicated retrieval algorithm can be used to measure linear polarization signals with a relative accuracy of 5%.

Mapping atmospheric aerosols with a citizen science network of smartphone spectropolarimeters

To assess the impact of atmospheric aerosols on health, climate, and air traffic, aerosol properties must be measured with fine spatial and temporal sampling. This can be achieved by actively involving citizens and the technology they own to form an atmospheric measurement network. We establish this new measurement strategy by developing and deploying iSPEX, a low-cost, mass-producible optical add-on for smartphones with a corresponding app. The aerosol optical thickness (AOT) maps derived from iSPEX spectropolarimetric measurements of the daytime cloud-free sky by thousands of citizen scientists throughout the Netherlands are in good agreement with the spatial AOT structure derived from satellite imagery and temporal AOT variations derived from ground-based precision photometry. These maps show structures at scales of kilometers that are typical for urban air pollution, indicating the potential of iSPEX to provide information about aerosol properties at locations and at times that are not covered by current monitoring efforts.

The effects of disk and dust structure on observed polarimetric images of protoplanetary disks

Context. Imaging polarimetry is a powerful tool for imaging faint circumstellar material. It is a rapidly developing field with great promise for diagnostics of both the large-scale structures and the small-scale details of the scattering particles. Aims. For a correct analysis of observations we need to fully understand the effects of dust particle parameters, as well as the effects of the telescope, atmospheric seeing, and assumptions about the data reduction and processing of the observed signal. Here we study the major effects of dust particle structure, size-dependent grain settling, and instrumental properties. Methods. We performed radiative transfer modeling using different dust particle models and disk structures. To study the influence of seeing and telescope diffraction we ran the models through an instrument simulator for the ExPo dual-beam imaging polarimeter mounted at the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope (WHT). Results. Particle shape and size have a strong influence on the brightness and detectability of the disks. In the simulated observations, the central resolution element also contains contributions from the inner regions of the protoplanetary disk besides the unpolarized central star. This causes the central resolution element to be polarized, making simple corrections for instrumental polarization difficult. This effect strongly depends on the spatial resolution, so adaptive optics systems are needed for proper polarization calibration. Conclusions. We find that the commonly employed homogeneous sphere model gives results that differ significantly from more realistic models. For a proper analysis of the wealth of data available now or in the near future, one must properly take the effects of particle types and disk structure into account. The observed signal depends strongly on the properties of these more realistic models, thus providing a potentially powerful diagnostic. We conclude that it is important to correctly understand telescope depolarization and calibration effects for a correct interpretation of the degree of polarization.

SPHERE ZIMPOL: overview and performance simulation

The ESO planet finder instrument SPHERE will search for the polarimetric signature of the reflected light from extrasolar planets, using a VLT telescope, an extreme AO system (SAXO), a stellar coronagraph, and an imaging polarimeter (ZIMPOL). We present the design concept of the ZIMPOL instrument, a single-beam polarimeter that achieves very high polarimetric accuracy using fast polarization modulation and demodulating CCD detectors. Furthermore, we describe comprehensive performance simulations made with the CAOS problem-solving environment. We conclude that direct detection of Jupiter-sized planets in close orbit around the brightest nearby stars is achievable with imaging polarimetry, signal-switching calibration, and angular differential imaging.

Data-reduction techniques for high-contrast imaging polarimetry Applications to ExPo

Context. Imaging polarimetry is a powerful tool for detecting and characterizing exoplanets and circumstellar environments. Polarimetry allows a separation of the light coming from an unpolarized source such as a star and the polarized source such as a planet or a protoplanetary disk. Future facilities like SPHERE at the VLT or EPICS at the E-ELT will incorporate imaging polarimetry to detect exoplanets. The Extreme Polarimeter (ExPo) is a dual-beam imaging polarimeter that can currently reach contrast ratios of 10 5 , enough to characterize circumstellar environments. Aims. We present the data-reduction steps for a dual-beam imaging polarimeter that can reach contrast ratios of 10 5 . Methods. The data obtained with ExPo at the William Herschel Telescope (WHT) are analyzed. Instrumental artifacts and noise sources are discussed for an unpolarized star and for a protoplanetary disk (AB Aurigae). Results. The combination of fast modulation and dual-beam techniques allows us to minimize instrumental artifacts. A proper data processing and alignment of the images is fundamental when dealing with high contrasts. Imaging polarimetry proves to be a powerful method to resolve circumstellar environments even without a coronagraph mask or an adaptive optics system.

The search for magnetic fields in mercury-manganese stars

Mercury-manganese (HgMn) stars belong to the class of chemically peculiar (CP) stars. It was recently discovered that some HgMn stars have spots of chemical elements on their surfaces. According to conventional picture of CP stars, magnetic field facilitates the formation and long term stability of chemical spots by controlling stratification of elements in stellar atmosphere. However, previous attempts to find magnetic field in HgMn stars set an upper limit on its strength at the level of about 20-100 Gauss. Observational evidence suggested that even weaker magnetic fields can be responsible for the formation of chemical spots. The main goal of our work was to verify this possibility.The search for weak magnetic fields requires the use of least-squares deconvolution (LSD) technique. This method combines information from many spectral lines providing a mean line profile with increased signal-to-noise ratio. Up to now there was no extensive comparison of the LSD profile with real spectral lines. We showed that the LSD profile of the intensity spectrum does not behave like a real spectral line as a function of chemical composition. However, for circular polarization, LSD profile resembles the profile of a spectral line with mean atomic parameters.We performed a comprehensive search for magnetic field in 47 HgMn stars and their companions, based on high-quality spectropolarimetric data obtained with the HARPSpol polarimeter at the ESO 3.6-m telescope. With the help of LSD technique, an upper limit on the mean longitudinal magnetic field was brought down to 2-10 G for most stars. We concluded that magnetic field is not responsible for the spot formation in HgMn stars.We obtained full rotational phase coverage for the HgMn stars φ Phe and 66 Eri. This enabled us to investigate line profile variability, reconstruct surface maps of chemical elements, and perform a search for magnetic field with very high sensitivity. For φ Phe we derived surface maps of Y, Sr, Ti, Cr, and obtained an upper limit of 4 G on the field strength. We also found marginal indication of vertical stratification of Y and Ti. No magnetic field was detected in both components of 66 Eri, with an upper limit of 10-24 G. We discovered chemical spots of Y, Sr, Ba, and Ti, in the primary star. We demonstrated a relation between the binary orbit and the morphology of these spots.

Evidence for the disintegration of KIC 12557548 b

Context. The Kepler object KIC 12557548 b is peculiar. It exhibits transit-like features every 15.7 h that vary in depth between 0.2% and 1.2%. Rappaport et al. (2012, ApJ, 752, 1) explain the observations in terms of a disintegrating, rocky planet that has a trailing cloud of dust created and constantly replenished by thermal surface erosion. The variability of the transit depth is then a consequence of changes in the cloud optical depth. Aims. We aim to validate the disintegrating-planet scenario by modeling the detailed shape of the observed light curve, and thereby constrain the cloud particle properties to better understand the nature of this intriguing object. Methods. We analyzed the six publicly-available quarters of raw Kepler data, phase-folded the light curve and fitted it to a model for the trailing dust cloud. Constraints on the particle properties were investigated with a light-scattering code. Results. The light curve exhibits clear signatures of light scattering and absorption by dust, including a brightening in flux just before ingress correlated with the transit depth and explained by forward scattering, and an asymmetry in the transit light curve shape, which is easily reproduced by an exponentially decaying distribution of optically thin dust, with a typical grain size of 0.1 μm. Conclusions. Our quantitative analysis supports the hypothesis that the transit signal of KIC 12557548 b is due to a variable cloud of dust, most likely originating from a disintegrating object.