title: Sensitivity of an imaging space infrared interferometer.
abstract: We study the sensitivities of space infrared interferometers. We formulate the signal-to-noise ratios of infrared images obtained by aperture synthesis in the presence of source shot noise, background shot noise, and detector read noise. We consider the case in which n beams are combined pairwise at n(n-1)/2 detectors and the case in which all the n beams are combined at a single detector. We apply the results to future missions, Terrestrial Planet Finder and Darwin. We also discuss the potential of a far-infrared interferometer for a deep galaxy survey.
authors: National Astronomical Observatory, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan. tadashi.nakajima@nao.ac.jp
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Nakajima
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Matsuhara