Focal plane wavefront sensor achromatization : The multireference self-coherent camera

High contrast imaging and spectroscopy provide unique constraints for exoplanet formation models as well as for planetary atmosphere models. But this can be challenging because of the planet-to-star small angular separation and high flux ratio. Recently, optimized instruments like SPHERE and GPI were installed on 8m-class telescopes. These will probe young gazeous exoplanets at large separations (~1au) but, because of uncalibrated aberrations that induce speckles in the coronagraphic images, they are not able to detect older and fainter planets. There are always aberrations that are slowly evolving in time. They create quasi-static speckles that cannot be calibrated a posteriori with sufficient accuracy. An active correction of these speckles is thus needed to reach very high contrast levels (>1e7). This requires a focal plane wavefront sensor. Our team proposed the SCC, the performance of which was demonstrated in the laboratory. As for all focal plane wavefront sensors, these are sensitive to chromatism and we propose an upgrade that mitigates the chromatism effects. First, we recall the principle of the SCC and we explain its limitations in polychromatic light. Then, we present and numerically study two upgrades to mitigate chromatism effects: the optical path difference method and the multireference self-coherent camera. Finally, we present laboratory tests of the latter solution. We demonstrate in the laboratory that the MRSCC camera can be used as a focal plane wavefront sensor in polychromatic light using an 80 nm bandwidth at 640 nm. We reach a performance that is close to the chromatic limitations of our bench: contrast of 4.5e-8 between 5 and 17 lambda/D. The performance of the MRSCC is promising for future high-contrast imaging instruments that aim to actively minimize the speckle intensity so as to detect and spectrally characterize faint old or light gaseous planets.Comment: 14 pages, 20 figure

Laboratory validation of the dual-zone phase mask coronagraph in broadband light at the high-contrast imaging THD-testbed

Specific high contrast imaging instruments are mandatory to characterize circumstellar disks and exoplanets around nearby stars. Coronagraphs are commonly used in these facilities to reject the diffracted light of an observed star and enable the direct imaging and spectroscopy of its circumstellar environment. One important property of the coronagraph is to be able to work in broadband light. Among several proposed coronagraphs, the dual-zone phase mask coronagraph is a promising solution for starlight rejection in broadband light. In this paper, we perform the first validation of this concept in laboratory. First, we recall the principle of the dual-zone phase mask coronagraph. Then, we describe the high-contrast imaging THD testbed, the manufacturing of the components and the quality-control procedures. Finally, we study the sensitivity of our coronagraph to low-order aberrations (inner working angle and defocus) and estimate its contrast performance. Our experimental broadband light results are compared with numerical simulations to check agreement with the performance predictions. With the manufactured prototype and using a dark hole technique based on the self-coherent camera, we obtain contrast levels down to $2\,10^{-8}$ between 5 and 17$\,\lambda_0/D$ in monochromatic light (640 nm). We also reach contrast levels of $4\,10^{-8}$ between 7 and 17$\lambda_0/D$ in broadband ($\lambda_0=675$ nm, $\Delta\lambda=250$ nm and $\Delta\lambda / \lambda_0 = 40$ %), which demonstrates the excellent chromatic performance of the dual-zone phase mask coronagraph. The performance reached by the dual-zone phase mask coronagraph is promising for future high-contrast imaging instruments that aim at detecting and spectrally characterizing old or light gaseous planets.Comment: 9 pages, 16 figure

A fragment merging approach towards the development of small molecule inhibitors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis EthR for use as ethionamide boosters.

With the ever-increasing instances of resistance to frontline TB drugs there is the need to develop novel strategies to fight the worldwide TB epidemic. Boosting the effect of the existing second-line antibiotic ethionamide by inhibiting the mycobacterial transcriptional repressor protein EthR is an attractive therapeutic strategy. Herein we report the use of a fragment based drug discovery approach for the structure-guided systematic merging of two fragment molecules, each binding twice to the hydrophobic cavity of EthR from M. tuberculosis. These together fill the entire binding pocket of EthR. We elaborated these fragment hits and developed small molecule inhibitors which have a 100-fold improvement of potency in vitro over the initial fragments.We also thank the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the EU FP7 MM4TB Grant n°260872, the ERC-STG INTRACELLTB Grant n°260901, the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-10-EQPX-04-01), the Feder (12001407 (D-AL) Equipex Imaginex BioMed) and the Région Nord Pas de Calais, France, for providing funding to support this work.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from the Royal Society of Chemistry via http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C5OB02630

Linac modeling for external beam radiotherapy quality assurance using a dedicated 2D pixelated detector

International audienceQuality assurance is a key issue in intensity modulated radiotherapy. Errors can occur in the dose delivery process induces significant differences between the planned treatment and the delivered one. In this context, the Medical Application Physics group of the LPSC is developing TraDeRa (Transparent Detector for Radiotherapy), a 2D pixelated matrix of ionization chambers located upstream to the patient. The signal map obtained with TraDeRa has to be processed to provide medical observables to quantify the quality of the treatment delivery. This relies on accurate Monte Carlo simulations benchmarked with measurements performed under a linear accelerator (Linac).The work described in this paper lies in the optimization of the Linac head simulation and the development of an innovative Monte Carlo/measurements comparison method to perform an accurate enough model of the X-ray production device. An optimized parametrization of the particles transport allowed an increase of the simulation efficiency by a factor 3. The characteristics of an electron beam of a reference Linac were matched with the simulation results by using dose deposition of the created X-ray beam in a water tank. Two parameters are particularly critical: the nominal energy of the electrons and the radial distribution of impact on the target. The innovative method was able to provide within minutes those two parameters for any Linac, achieving, for example, a 10 keV precision on the energy determination for a 6 MV operating Linac

UKIDSS detections of cool brown dwarfs - proper motions of 14 known >>T5 dwarfs and discovery of three new T5.5-T6 dwarfs

AIMS: We contribute to improving the census of cool brown dwarfs (late-T and Y dwarfs) in the immediate solar neighbourhood. METHODS: By combining near-infrared (NIR) data of UKIDSS with mid-infrared WISE and other available NIR (2MASS) and red optical (SDSS $z$-band) multi-epoch data we detect high proper motion (HPM) objects with colours typical of late spectral types ($>$T5). We use NIR low-resolution spectroscopy for the classification of new candidates. RESULTS: We determined new proper motions for 14 known T5.5-Y0 dwarfs, many of them being significantly ($>$2-10 times) more accurate than previous ones. We detected three new candidates, ULAS J0954+0623, ULAS J1152+0359, and ULAS J1204-0150, by their HPMs and colours. Using previously published and new UKIDSS positions of the known nearby T8 dwarf WISE J0254+0223 we improved its trigonometric parallax to 165$\pm$20 mas. For the three new objects we obtained NIR spectroscopic follow-up with LBT/LUCIFER classifying them as T5.5 and T6 dwarfs. With their estimated spectroscopic distances of about 25-30 pc, their proper motions of about 430-650 mas/yr lead to tangential velocities of about 50-80 km/s typical of the Galactic thin disk population.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, plus 3 pages with 5 tables (online material), accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Event-related potential correlates of sound organization: Early sensory and late cognitive effects

We tested whether incoming sounds are processed differently depending on how the preceding sound sequence has been interpreted by the brain. Sequences of a regularly repeating three-tone pattern, the perceived organization of which spontaneously switched back and forth between two alternative interpretations, were delivered to listeners. Occasionally, a regular tone was exchanged for a slightly or moderately lower one (deviants). The electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded while listeners continuously marked their perception of the sound sequence. We found that for both the regular and the deviant tones, the early exogenous P1 and N1 amplitudes varied together with the perceived sound organization. Percept dependent effects on the late endogenous N2 and P3a amplitudes were only found for deviant tones. These results suggest that the perceived sound organization affects sound processing both by modulating what information is extracted from incoming sounds as well as by influencing how deviant sound events are evaluated for further processing

Preparing an unsupervised massive analysis of SPHERE high contrast data with the PACO algorithm

We aim at searching for exoplanets on the whole ESO/VLT-SPHERE archive with improved and unsupervised data analysis algorithm that could allow to detect massive giant planets at 5 au. To prepare, test and optimize our approach, we gathered a sample of twenty four solar-type stars observed with SPHERE using angular and spectral differential imaging modes. We use PACO, a new generation algorithm recently developed, that has been shown to outperform classical methods. We also improve the SPHERE pre-reduction pipeline, and optimize the outputs of PACO to enhance the detection performance. We develop custom built spectral prior libraries to optimize the detection capability of the ASDI mode for both IRDIS and IFS. Compared to previous works conducted with more classical algorithms than PACO, the contrast limits we derived are more reliable and significantly better, especially at short angular separations where a gain by a factor ten is obtained between 0.2 and 0.5 arcsec. Under good observing conditions, planets down to 5 MJup, orbiting at 5 au could be detected around stars within 60 parsec. We identified two exoplanet candidates that require follow-up to test for common proper motion. In this work, we demonstrated on a small sample the benefits of PACO in terms of achievable contrast and of control of the confidence levels. Besides, we have developed custom tools to take full benefits of this algorithm and to quantity the total error budget on the estimated astrometry and photometry. This work paves the way towards an end-to-end, homogeneous, and unsupervised massive re-reduction of archival direct imaging surveys in the quest of new exoJupiters.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&

Muon capture on nuclei with N > Z, random phase approximation, and in-medium renormalization of the axial-vector coupling constant

We use the random phase approximation to describe the muon capture rate on ${}^{44}$Ca,${}^{48}$Ca, ${}^{56}$Fe, ${}^{90}$Zr, and ${}^{208}$Pb. With ${}^{40}$Ca as a test case, we show that the Continuum Random Phase Approximation (CRPA) and the standard RPA give essentially equivalent descriptions of the muon capture process. Using the standard RPA with the free nucleon weak form factors we reproduce the experimental total capture rates on these nuclei quite well. Confirming our previous CRPA result for the $N = Z$ nuclei, we find that the calculated rates would be significantly lower than the data if the in-medium quenching of the axial-vector coupling constant were employed.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev.

Amino acid "little Big Bang": Representing amino acid substitution matrices as dot products of Euclidian vectors

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Sequence comparisons make use of a one-letter representation for amino acids, the necessary quantitative information being supplied by the substitution matrices. This paper deals with the problem of finding a representation that provides a comprehensive description of amino acid intrinsic properties consistent with the substitution matrices.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We present a Euclidian vector representation of the amino acids, obtained by the singular value decomposition of the substitution matrices. The substitution matrix entries correspond to the dot product of amino acid vectors. We apply this vector encoding to the study of the relative importance of various amino acid physicochemical properties upon the substitution matrices. We also characterize and compare the PAM and BLOSUM series substitution matrices.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This vector encoding introduces a Euclidian metric in the amino acid space, consistent with substitution matrices. Such a numerical description of the amino acid is useful when intrinsic properties of amino acids are necessary, for instance, building sequence profiles or finding consensus sequences, using machine learning algorithms such as Support Vector Machine and Neural Networks algorithms.</p

The SOPHIE search for northern extrasolar planets VIII. A warm Neptune orbiting HD164595

High-precision radial velocity surveys explore the population of low-mass exoplanets orbiting bright stars. This allows accurately deriving their orbital parameters such as their occurrence rate and the statistical distribution of their properties. Based on this, models of planetary formation and evolution can be constrained. The SOPHIE spectrograph has been continuously improved in past years, and thanks to an appropriate correction of systematic instrumental drift, it is now reaching 2 m/s precision in radial velocity measurements on all timescales. As part of a dedicated radial velocity survey devoted to search for low-mass planets around a sample of 190 bright solar-type stars in the northern hemisphere, we report the detection of a warm Neptune with a minimum mass of 16.1 +- 2.7 Mearth orbiting the solar analog HD164595 in 40 +- 0.24 days . We also revised the parameters of the multiplanetary system around HD190360. We discuss this new detection in the context of the upcoming space mission CHEOPS, which is devoted to a transit search of bright stars harboring known exoplanets.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure