Development of new method for optical and near-infrared interferometer

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25610041
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Astronomy
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: MATSUO Taro 京都大学, 理学(系)研究科(研究院), 准教授 (00548464)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 赤外線干渉計 / 太陽系外惑星 / 波面計測

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study is to develop a method for detection and characterization of exoplanets with a near-infrared interferometer. Since spectrum of exoplanet obtained by an interferometer includes the phase modulated by its planet light, this method allows us to reconstruct an image of the planetary system as well as the spectrum of each planet. However, faint planet light is embedded in the bright-scattered light from the host star. Here, I found this method is useful for extraction of the planet signal from high-contrast observation dataset. In case of high-contrast observation on 30m-telescope, super-Earth planets around G-type star can be detected for 10 hours and also characterized for 20 days.
I also proposed a new high-precision wavefront sensor developing this method. A paper on this method has been submitted to a refereed journal.

Free Research Field

光赤外線天文学