FUNDAMENTAL PERFORMANCE OF A DISPERSED FIXED DELAY INTERFEROMETER IN SEARCHING FOR PLANETS AROUND M DWARFS
We present a new method to calculate fundamental Doppler measurement limits with a dispersed fixed delay interferometer (DFDI) in the near-infrared (NIR) wavelength region for searching for exoplanets around M dwarfs in the coming decade. It is based on calculating the Q factor, a measure of flux-normalized Doppler sensitivity in the fringing spectra created with DFDI. We calculate the Q factor as a function of spectral resolution R, stellar-projected rotational velocity Vsin i, stellar effective temperature T{sub eff}, and optical path difference (OPD) of the interferometer. We also compare the DFDI Q factor to that for the popular cross-dispersed echelle spectrograph method (the direct echelle (DE) method). We find that (1) Q{sub DFDI} is a factor of 1.5-3 higher than Q{sub DE} at R ranging from 5000 to 20,000; (2) Q{sub DFDI} and Q{sub DE} converge at a very high R (R {>=} 100,000); (3) Q{sub DFDI} increases as R increases and Vsin i deceases; (4) for a given R, Q{sub DFDI} increases as T{sub eff} drops from 3100 K to 2400 K (M4V to M9V). We also investigate how Q{sub DFDI} is affected by OPD and find that a 5 mm deviation from the optimal OPD does not significantly affect Q{sub DFDI} (10% or less) for a wide range of R. Given that the NIR Doppler measurement is likely to be detector-limited for a while, we introduce new merit functions, which is directly related to photon-limited radial velocity (RV) uncertainty, to evaluate Doppler performance with the DFDI and DE methods. We find that DFDI has strength in wavelength coverage and multi-object capability over the DE for a limited detector resource. We simulate the performance of the InfraRed Exoplanet Tracker (IRET) based on the DFDI design, being considered for the next generation IR Doppler measurements. The predicted photon-limited RV uncertainty suggests that IRET is capable of detecting Earth-like exoplanets in habitable zone around nearby bright M dwarfs if they exist. A new method is developed to quantitatively estimate the influence of telluric lines on RV uncertainty. Our study shows that photon-limited RV uncertainty can be reached if 99% of the strength of telluric lines can be removed from the measured stellar spectra. At low to moderate levels of telluric line strength removal (50%-90%), the optimal RV uncertainty is typically a factor of two to three times larger than photon-limited RV uncertainty.
- OSTI ID:
- 21584906
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 738, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/738/2/132; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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