MIRC-X polarinterferometry at CHARA
Setterholm, BR; Monnier, JD; Le Bouquin, JB; et al.Anugu, N; Labdon, A; Ennis, J; Johnson, KJC; Kraus, S; Ten Brummelaar, T
Date: 13 December 2020
Journal
Proceedings of SPIE - International Society for Optical Engineering
Publisher
Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)
Publisher DOI
Abstract
We present a new polarimetric mode for the MIRC-X 6-telescope beam combiner at CHARA. Utilizing the extensive u - v coverage afforded by CHARA this mode will be able to resolve and constrain scattered light in environs at milliarcsecond separations of target stars, a largely unexplored parameter space to-date in astronomy. Notably, ...
We present a new polarimetric mode for the MIRC-X 6-telescope beam combiner at CHARA. Utilizing the extensive u - v coverage afforded by CHARA this mode will be able to resolve and constrain scattered light in environs at milliarcsecond separations of target stars, a largely unexplored parameter space to-date in astronomy. Notably, this upgrade will allow for the investigation of the scattering properties of the inner dust wall at the sublimation radius of Herbig Ae/Be star disks, dust shells surrounding evolved stars, and gas-rich disks around Be stars. Our design adds a series of rotating half-wave plates, achromatic across J- and H-bands, and a polarizing beamsplitter into the MIRC-X beam path. In this work, we also preview on-sky observations, discussing ongoing work calibrating instrumental polarization effects in the CHARA beam path as well as upgrades to the MIRC-X data reduction pipeline.
Physics and Astronomy
Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy
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