L-band nulling interferometry at the VLTI with Asgard/NOTT: status and plans
Abstract
NOTT (formerly Hi-5) is the L'-band (3.5-4.0~microns) nulling interferometer of Asgard, an instrument suite in preparation for the VLTI visitor focus. The primary scientific objectives of NOTT include characterizing (i) young planetary systems near the snow line, a critical region for giant planet formation, and (ii) nearby main-sequence stars close to the habitable zone, with a focus on detecting exozodiacal dust that could obscure Earth-like planets. In 2023-2024, the final warm optics have been procured and assembled in a new laboratory at KU Leuven. First fringes and null measurements were obtained using a Gallium Lanthanum Sulfide (GLS) photonic chip that was also tested at cryogenic temperatures. In this paper, we present an overall update of the NOTT project with a particular focus on the cold mechanical design, the first results in the laboratory with the final NOTT warm optics, and the ongoing Asgard integration activities. We also report on other ongoing activities such as the characterization of the photonic chip (GLS, LiNbO3, SiO), the development of the exoplanet science case, the design of the dispersion control module, and the progress with the self-calibration data reduction software.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2407.08397,
title = {L-band nulling interferometry at the VLTI with Asgard/NOTT: status and plans},
author = {Denis Defrère and Romain Laugier and Marc-Antoine Martinod and Germain Garreau and Kwinten Missiaen and Muhammad Salman and Gert Raskin and Colin Dandumont and Steve Ertel and Michael J. Ireland and Stefan Kraus and Lucas Labadie and Alexandra Mazzoli and Gyorgy Medgyesi and Ahmed Sanny and Olivier Absil and Peter Ábráham and Jean-Philippe Berger and Myriam Bonduelle and Azzurra Bigioli and Emilie Bouzerand and Josh Carter and Nick Cvetojevic and Benjamin Courtney-Barrer and Adrian M. Glauser and Simon Gross and Xavier Haubois and Noel James and Andras Peter Joo and Stephane Lagarde and Alain Léger and Jarron Leisenring and Jérôme Loicq and Guillermo Martin and Frantz Martinache and Gyorgy Mezo and Sébastien Morel and Johan Morren and Marc Ollivier and Gordon Robertson and Hélène Rousseau and Warrick Schofield and Nicolas Schuhler and Adam Taras and Bart Vandenbussche and Julien Woillez},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2407.08397},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
11 pages (incl. 5 figures); Proc. SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2024 (Yokohama; Japan), Optical and Infrared Interferometry and Imaging VI