Analytical modeling of the white-light fringe.
An analytical technique for extracting phase, visibility, and amplitude information as needed for interferometric astrometry for the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) is presented. This model accounts for a number of physical and instrumental effects and is valid for the general case of a bandpass filter. I was able to obtain a general solution for polychromatic phasors and to address the properties of unbiased fringe estimators in the presence of noise. For demonstration purposes I studied a rectangular bandpass filter with two different methods of optical path difference (OPD) modulation: stepping and ramping OPD modulation. A number of areas for further studies relevant to instrument design and simulations are outlined and discussed.
Turyshev
Slava G
SG
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California 91109-8099, USA. turyshev@pop.jpl.nasa.gov