Related papers: Kernel-nulling for a robust direct interferometric…
Nulling interferometry is a promising technique for direct detection of exoplanets. However, the performance of current devices is limited by different perturbations sources and especially by its sensitivity to any phase aberrations. The…
The use of interferometric nulling for the direct characterization of extrasolar planets is an exciting prospect, but one that faces many practical challenges when deployed on telescopes. The largest limitation is the extreme sensitivity of…
Context: The conventional approach to direct imaging has been the use of a single aperture coronagraph with wavefront correction via extreme adaptive optics. Such systems are limited to observing beyond an inner working (IWA) of a few…
The use of interferometric nulling for the direct detection of extrasolar planets is in part limited by the extreme sensitivity of the instrumental response to tiny optical path differences between apertures. The recently proposed…
(Abridged) Context: In the previous paper in this series, we identified that a pentagonal arrangement of five telescopes, using a kernel-nulling beam combiner, shows notable advantages for some important performance metrics for a…
Vortex Fiber Nulling (VFN) is an interferometric method for suppressing starlight to detect and spectroscopically characterize exoplanets. It relies on a vortex phase mask and single-mode fiber to reject starlight while simultaneously…
The direct observation of extrasolar planets and their spectra is coming into reach with the new generation of ground-based near-IR interferometers, like the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). The high contrast between star and…
Aims: Optical interferometry from space for the purpose of detecting and characterising exoplanets is seeing a revival, specifically from missions such as the proposed Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE). A default assumption since…
One of the biggest challenges associated with a nulling interferometer-based approach to detecting extra-solar Earth-like planets comes from the extremely stringent requirements of pathlength, polarization and amplitude matching in the…
We evaluate the direct detection of extrasolar giant planets with a two-aperture nulling infrared interferometer, working at angles ${\theta}<{\lambda}/2B$, and using a new `ratio-of-two-wavelengths' technique. Simple arguments suggest that…
Vortex fiber nulling (VFN) is a method that may enable the detection and characterization of exoplanets at small angular separations (0.5-2 $\lambda/D$) with ground- and space-based telescopes. Since the field of view is within the inner…
Asgard/NOTT (previously Hi-5) is a European Research Council (ERC)-funded project hosted at KU Leuven and a new visitor instrument for the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). Its primary goal is to image the snow line region around…
Coronagraphs allow for faint off-axis exoplanets to be observed, but are limited to angular separations greater than a few beam widths. Accessing closer-in separations would greatly increase the expected number of detectable planets, which…
Vortex fiber nulling (VFN) is a single-aperture interferometric technique for detecting and characterizing exoplanets separated from their host star by less than a diffracted beam width. VFN uses a vortex mask and single mode fiber to…
In this paper, we review the various ways in which an infrared stellar interferometer can be used to perform direct detection of extrasolar planetary systems. We first review the techniques based on classical stellar interferometry, where…
Nulling interferometry has been identified as a competitive technique for the detection of extrasolar planets. The technique consists in combining out-of-phase pairs of telescopes to null effectively the light of a bright star an reveal the…
As the number of confirmed exoplanets continues to grow, there is an increased push to spectrally characterize them to determine their atmospheric composition, formation paths, rotation rates, and habitability. However, there is a large…
Differential phase observations with a near-IR interferometer offer a way to obtain spectra of extrasolar planets. The method makes use of the wavelength dependence of the interferometer phase of the planet/star system, which depends both…
Imaging the direct light signal from a faint exoplanet against the overwhelming glare of its host star presents one of the fundamental challenges to modern astronomical instrumentation. Achieving sufficient signal-to-noise for detection by…
Instrumentation designed to characterize potentially habitable planets may combine adaptive optics and high-resolution spectroscopy techniques to achieve the highest possible sensitivity to spectral signs of life. Detecting the weak signal…