621 research outputs found
Activated escape of a self-propelled particle from a metastable state
We study the noise-driven escape of active Brownian particles (ABPs) and
run-and-tumble particles (RTPs) from confining potentials. In the small noise
limit, we provide an exact expression for the escape rate in term of a
variational problem in any dimension. For RTPs in one dimension, we obtain an
explicit solution, including the first sub-leading correction. In two
dimensions we solve the escape from a quadratic well for both RTPs and ABPs. In
contrast to the equilibrium problem we find that the escape rate depends
explicitly on the full shape of the potential barrier, and not only on its
height. This leads to a host of unusual behaviors. For example, when a particle
is trapped between two barriers it may preferentially escape over the higher
one. Moreover, as the self-propulsion speed is varied, the escape route may
discontinuously switch from one barrier to the other, leading to a dynamical
phase transition
Astrometric detection of exoplanets from the ground
Astrometry is a powerful technique to study the populations of extrasolar
planets around nearby stars. It gives access to a unique parameter space and is
therefore required for obtaining a comprehensive picture of the properties,
abundances, and architectures of exoplanetary systems. In this review, we
discuss the scientific potential, present the available techniques and
instruments, and highlight a few results of astrometric planet searches, with
an emphasis on observations from the ground. In particular, we discuss
astrometric observations with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) Interferometer and
a programme employing optical imaging with a VLT camera, both aimed at the
astrometric detection of exoplanets. Finally, we set these efforts into the
context of Gaia, ESA's astrometry mission scheduled for launch in 2013, and
present an outlook on the future of astrometric exoplanet detection from the
ground.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. Invited contribution to the SPIE conference
"Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets VI" held in San
Diego, CA, August 25-29, 201
Nonlocal stationary probability distributions and escape rates for an active Ornstein-Uhlenbeck particle
We evaluate the steady-state distribution and escape rate for an Active
Ornstein-Uhlenbeck Particle (AOUP) using methods from the theory of large
deviations. The calculation is carried out both for small and large memory
times of the active force in one-dimension. We compare our results to those
obtained in the literature about colored noise processes, and we emphasize
their relevance for the field of active matter. In particular, we stress that
contrary to equilibrium particles, the invariant measure of such an active
particle is a non-local function of the potential. This fact has many
interesting consequences, which we illustrate through two phenomena. First,
active particles in the presence of an asymmetric barrier tend to accumulate on
one side of the potential -a ratchet effect that was missing is previous
treatments. Second, an active particle can escape over a deep metastable state
without spending any time at its bottom
The 2nd Generation VLTI path to performance
The upgrade of the VLTI infrastructure for the 2nd generation instruments is
now complete with the transformation of the laboratory, and installation of
star separators on both the 1.8-m Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) and the 8-m Unit
Telescopes (UTs). The Gravity fringe tracker has had a full semester of
commissioning on the ATs, and a first look at the UTs. The CIAO infrared
wavefront sensor is about to demonstrate its performance relative to the
visible wavefront sensor MACAO. First astrometric measurements on the ATs and
astrometric qualification of the UTs are on-going. Now is a good time to
revisit the performance roadmap for VLTI that was initiated in 2014, which
aimed at coherently driving the developments of the interferometer, and
especially its performance, in support to the new generation of instruments:
Gravity and MATISSE.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, Proc. SPIE 201
High dynamic range imaging by pupil single-mode filtering and remapping
Because of atmospheric turbulence, obtaining high angular resolution images
with a high dynamic range is difficult even in the near infrared domain of
wavelengths. We propose a novel technique to overcome this issue. The
fundamental idea is to apply techniques developed for long baseline
interferometry to the case of a single-aperture telescope. The pupil of the
telescope is broken down into coherent sub-apertures each feeding a single-mode
fiber. A remapping of the exit pupil allows interfering all sub-apertures
non-redundantly. A diffraction-limited image with very high dynamic range is
reconstructed from the fringe pattern analysis with aperture synthesis
techniques, free of speckle noise. The performances of the technique are
demonstrated with simulations in the visible range with an 8 meter telescope.
Raw dynamic ranges of 1: can be obtained in only a few tens of seconds of
integration time for bright objects.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. accepted for publication in MNRA
Integrated turbulence parameters estimation from NAOMI AO telemetry data
Monitoring turbulence parameters is crucial in high-angular resolution
astronomy for various purposes, such as optimising adaptive optics systems or
fringe trackers. The former are present at most modern observatories and will
remain significant in the future. This makes them a valuable complementary tool
for the estimation of turbulence parameters.
The feasibility of estimating turbulence parameters from low-resolution
sensors remains untested. We perform seeing estimates for both simulated and
on-sky telemetry data sourced from the new adaptive optics module installed on
the four Auxiliary Telescopes of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer.
The seeing estimates are obtained from a modified and optimised algorithm
that employs a chi-squared modal fitting approach to the theoretical von
K\'arm\'an model variances. The algorithm is built to retrieve turbulence
parameters while simultaneously estimating and accounting for the remaining and
measurement error. A Monte Carlo method is proposed for the estimation of the
statistical uncertainty of the algorithm.
The algorithm is shown to be able to achieve per cent accuracy in the
estimation of the seeing with a temporal horizon of 20s on simulated data. A
0.76" +/- 1.2% +/- 1.2% median seeing was
estimated from on-sky data collected from 2018 and 2020. The spatial
distribution of the Auxiliary Telescopes across the Paranal Observatory was
found to not play a role in the value of the seeing
Reaching micro-arcsecond astrometry with long baseline optical interferometry; application to the GRAVITY instrument
A basic principle of long baseline interferometry is that an optical path
difference (OPD) directly translates into an astrometric measurement. In the
simplest case, the OPD is equal to the scalar product between the vector
linking the two telescopes and the normalized vector pointing toward the star.
However, a too simple interpretation of this scalar product leads to seemingly
conflicting results, called here "the baseline paradox". For micro-arcsecond
accuracy astrometry, we have to model in full the metrology measurement. It
involves a complex system subject to many optical effects: from pure baseline
errors to static, quasi-static and high order optical aberrations. The goal of
this paper is to present the strategy used by the "General Relativity Analysis
via VLT InTerferometrY" instrument (GRAVITY) to minimize the biases introduced
by these defects. It is possible to give an analytical formula on how the
baselines and tip-tilt errors affect the astrometric measurement. This formula
depends on the limit-points of three type of baselines: the wide-angle
baseline, the narrow-angle baseline, and the imaging baseline. We also,
numerically, include non-common path higher-order aberrations, whose amplitude
were measured during technical time at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer.
We end by simulating the influence of high-order common-path aberrations due to
atmospheric residuals calculated from a Monte-Carlo simulation tool for
Adaptive optics systems. The result of this work is an error budget of the
biases caused by the multiple optical imperfections, including optical
dispersion. We show that the beam stabilization through both focal and pupil
tracking is crucial to the GRAVITY system. Assuming the instrument pupil is
stabilized at a 4 cm level on M1, and a field tracking below 0.2, we
show that GRAVITY will be able to reach its objective of 10as accuracy.Comment: 14 pages. Accepted by A&
The interferometric baselines and GRAVITY astrometric error budget
GRAVITY is a new generation beam combination instrument for the VLTI. Its
goal is to achieve microarsecond astrometric accuracy between objects separated
by a few arcsec. This accuracy on astrometric measurements is the most
important challenge of the instrument, and careful error budget have been
paramount during the technical design of the instrument. In this poster, we
will focus on baselines induced errors, which is part of a larger error budget.Comment: SPIE Meeting 2014 -- Montrea
Science with the Keck Interferometer ASTRA Program
The ASTrometric and phase-Referenced Astronomy (ASTRA) project will provide
phase referencing and astrometric observations at the Keck Interferometer,
leading to enhanced sensitivity and the ability to monitor orbits at an
accuracy level of 30-100 microarcseconds. Here we discuss recent scientific
results from ASTRA, and describe new scientific programs that will begin in
2010-2011. We begin with results from the "self phase referencing" (SPR) mode
of ASTRA, which uses continuum light to correct atmospheric phase variations
and produce a phase-stabilized channel for spectroscopy. We have observed a
number of protoplanetary disks using SPR and a grism providing a spectral
dispersion of ~2000. In our data we spatially resolve emission from dust as
well as gas. Hydrogen line emission is spectrally resolved, allowing
differential phase measurements across the emission line that constrain the
relative centroids of different velocity components at the 10 microarcsecond
level. In the upcoming year, we will begin dual-field phase referencing (DFPR)
measurements of the Galactic Center and a number of exoplanet systems. These
observations will, in part, serve as precursors to astrometric monitoring of
stellar orbits in the Galactic Center and stellar wobbles of exoplanet host
stars. We describe the design of several scientific investigations capitalizing
on the upcoming phase-referencing and astrometric capabilities of ASTRA.Comment: Published in the proceedings of the SPIE 2010 conference on "Optical
and Infrared Interferometry II
- âŠ