Spectrally resolved Michelson stellar interferometry. I. Exact formalism in the multispeckle mode.

We detail the theoretical description of a modern optical stellar interferometer by studying the addition of spectral capabilities in such instruments. We give what we believe is the first complete formalism to describe such an interferometer operating in the visible where the fringe signal from large telescope apertures is recorded at the output of a spectrograph. The dispersed-fringes mode and the multichromatic modes are detailed analytically in terms of spectral density and visibility analysis. All the theoretical results are validated through numerical simulation.

[1]  Antoine Labeyrie,et al.  Interference fringes obtained on VEGA with two optical telescopes , 1975 .

[2]  Peter G. Tuthill,et al.  The first images from an optical aperture synthesis array: mapping of Capella with COAST at two epochs. , 1996 .

[3]  F. Roddier.  V The Effects of Atmospheric Turbulence in Optical Astronomy , 1981 .

[4]  Gordon A. H. Walker,et al.  JET-LIKE STRUCTURES IN BETA LYRAE : RESULTS OF OPTICAL INTERFEROMETRY, SPECTROSCOPY AND PHOTOMETRY , 1996 .

[5]  Antoine Labeyrie,et al.  The rotating envelope of the hot star gamma Cassiopeiae resolved by optical interferometry , 1989, Nature.

[6]  C. Aime,et al.  Polychromatic transfer functions in stellar speckle interferometry , 1989 .

[7]  F Roddier,et al.  Long-baseline Michelson interferometry with large ground-based telescopes operating at optical wavelengths. I. General formalism. Interferometry at visible wavelengths , 1984 .

[8]  A. Lohmann,et al.  Speckle masking in astronomy: triple correlation theory and applications. , 1983, Applied optics.

[9]  Antoine Labeyrie,et al.  The G12T interferometer on Plateau de Calern , 1994 .

[10]  Nicolas A. Roddier.  Atmospheric wavefront simulation using Zernike polynomials , 1990 .

[11]  Julien Borgnino,et al.  EFFECTS OF ATMOSPHERIC SPECTRAL DECORRELATION ON VISIBILITY MEASUREMENTS IN MICHELSON INTERFEROMETRY , 1997 .

[12]  A. Labeyrie,et al.  The mean angular diameter of δ Cephei measured by optical long-baseline interferometry. , 1997 .

[13]  I. Tallon-Bosc,et al.  The object-image relationship in Michelson stellar interferometry , 1992 .

[14]  Isabelle Tallon-Bosc,et al.  Estimation of visibility amplitude by optical long-baseline Michelson interferometry with large apertures , 1994 .

[15]  D. Mourard,et al.  Subtle structures in the wind of P Cygni , 1997 .

[16]  Albert A. Michelson,et al.  On the Application of Interference Methods to Astronomical Measurements , 1920 .

[17]  Isabelle Tallon-Bosc,et al.  γ Cassiopeiae revisited by spectrally resolved interferometry. , 1995 .

[18]  J. Armstrong,et al.  The Navy Prototype Optical Interferometer , 1998 .

[19]  Oskar von der Lühe,et al.  An Introduction to Interferometry with the ESO Very Large Telescope , 1997 .

[20]  C. Roddier,et al.  On the fringe visibility in a Michelson stellar interferometer , 1976 .