Photon noise limited Doppler measurement with a Fourier transform seismometer
Mosser Benoît1, Maillard Jean-Pierre2
1 Observatoire de Paris, LESIA. F-92195 Meudon cedex, France
2 Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, 98 bld Arago, F-75014 Paris,France
The principle and the design of a low cost, very stable et luminous instrument devoted
to ground based asteroseismic observation will be presented.
The principle of the instrument is derived from Fourier transform
spectrometry. According to the analysis of the performances already
obtained with the FTS based at the CFHT telescope (Mosser et al 1998),
we propose now a dedicated instrument. Two major differences distinguish
this instrument from a classical FTS : for sake of stability, this
dedicated seismometer is without moving parts ; for sake of luminosity,
it includes a
post-dispersion system that permits to enlarge the acceptable
bandpass.
The fundamental velocity noise, limited by the photon noise, has been
calculated for synthetic stellar spectra, with
spectral types close to
solar and moderate rotational velocity (v sin 20 Km s-¹.
For quantitative
simulations, we consider the instrument to be installed in a network of
2-m class telescopes, such a network being adequate for a long term
multi-targets seismic program.
Sensitivity about a few cm s-¹
(K2V, v sin =0 km s-¹ : 1 cm s-¹ ;
F2V, v sin =20 km s-¹ : 6 cm s-¹
is reached on a 4th
magnitude star, after 5 nights observation,
with a 2-m class telescope network and a conservative
duty cycle of 50%. Such performances make ground based seismic
observations competitive, since they allow long term seismic
observations of about 80 stellar targets.
The results have been qualitatively and quantitatively compared to the
performance of radial velocity measurements obtained with a grating
spectrometer (Bouchy et al 2001).
Even if the performances remain a factor 1.5 to 2 lower than
for a grating spectrometer (depending on the
spectral type and on the rotational velocity v sin ), other factors as the total cost, the
dimension (50 x 50 x 20 cm³)
and the simplicity of use justify to consider it as an
efficient solution for a network devoted to asteroseismology.
Practically, a network should be composed of both types of instruments.
Mosser B., JP. Maillard, D. Mékarnia, J. Gay 1998.
New limit on the p modes oscillation spectrum of Procyon obtained
by Fourier transform seismometry.
A&A 340, 457-462
Bouchy, F., Pepe, D., Queloz, 2001.
Fundamental photon noise limit to radial velocity measurements.
A&A 374, 733-739
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