Context. It is now generally accepted that the near-infrared excess of Herbig AeBe stars originates in the dust of a circumstellar disk. Aims. The aims of this article are to infer the radial and ...vertical structure of these disks at scales of order 1 au, and the properties of the dust grains. Methods. The program objects (51 in total) were observed with the H-band (1.6 mu m) PIONIER/VLTI interferometer. The largest baselines allowed us to resolve (at least partially) structures of a few tenths of an au at typical distances of a few hundred parsecs. Dedicated UBVRIJHK photometric measurements were also obtained. Spectral and 2D geometrical parameters are extracted via fits of a few simple models: ellipsoids and broadened rings with azimuthal modulation. Model bias is mitigated by parallel fits of physical disk models. Sample statistics were evaluated against similar statistics for the physical disk models to infer properties of the sample objects as a group. Results. We find that dust at the inner rim of the disk has a sublimation temperature T sub(sub)approximate 1800 K. A ring morphology is confirmed for approximately half the resolved objects; these rings are wide delta r/r> or = 0.5. A wide ring favors a rim that, on the star-facing side, looks more like a knife edge than a doughnut. The data are also compatible with the combination of a narrow ring and an inner disk of unspecified nature inside the dust sublimation radius. The disk inner part has a thickness z/rapproximate 0.2, flaring to z/rapproximate 0.5 in the outer part. We confirm the known luminosity-radius relation; a simple physical model is consistent with both the mean luminosity-radius relation and the ring relative width; however, a significant spread around the mean relation is present. In some of the objects we find a halo component, fully resolved at the shortest interferometer spacing, that is related to the HAeBe class.
Context. With the advent of visible and infrared long-baseline interferometers with more than two telescopes, both the size and the completeness of interferometric data sets have significantly ...increased, allowing images based on models with no a priori assumptions to be reconstructed with an aperture synthesis technique. Aims. Our main objective is to analyze the multiple parameters of the image reconstruction process with particular attention to the regularization term and the study of their behavior in different situations (types of astrophysical objects, telescope array configurations, level of noise, etc.). The secondary goal is to derive practical rules for the users. Methods. Using the Multi-aperture image Reconstruction Algorithm (MiRA), we performed multiple systematic tests, analyzing 11 regularization terms commonly used. The tests are made on different astrophysical objects, different (u,v) plane coverages and several signal-to-noise ratios to determine the minimal configuration needed to reconstruct an image. We establish a methodology and we introduce the mean-square errors (MSE) to discuss the results. Results. From the ~24 000 simulations performed for the benchmarking of image reconstruction with MiRA, we are able to classify the different regularizations in the context of the observations. We find typical values of the regularization weight. A minimal (u,v) coverage is required to reconstruct an acceptable image, whereas no limits are found for the studied values of the signal-to-noise ratio. We also show that super-resolution can be achieved with increasing performance with the (u,v) coverage filling. Conclusions. Using image reconstruction with a sufficient (u,v) coverage is shown to be reliable. The choice of the main parameters of the reconstruction is tightly constrained. We recommend that efforts to develop interferometric infrastructures should first concentrate on the number of telescopes to combine, and secondly on improving the accuracy and sensitivity of the arrays.
Context. Recently, an increasing number of scientific publications making use of images obtained with near-infrared long-baseline interferometry have been produced. The technique has reached, at ...last, a technical maturity level that opens new avenues for numerous astrophysical topics requiring milli-arc-second model-independent imaging. The Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) will soon be equipped with instruments able to combine between four and six telescopes. Aims. In the framework of the VLTI second generation instruments Gravity and VSI, we propose a new beam combining concept using integrated optics (IO) technologies with a novel ABCD-like fringe encoding scheme. Our goal is to demonstrate that IO-based combinations bring considerable advantages in terms of instrumental design and performance. We therefore aim at giving a full characterization of an IO beam combiner in order to establish its performance and check its compliance with the specifications of an imaging instrument. Methods. For this purpose, prototype IO beam combiners have been manufactured and laboratory measurements were made in the H band with a dedicated testbed, simulating a four-telescope interferometer. We studied the beam combiners through the analysis of throughput, instrumental visibilities, phases and closure phases in wide band as well as with spectral dispersion. Study of the polarization properties was also carried out. Results. We obtain competitive throughput (65%), high and stable instrumental contrasts (from 80% in wide band up to 100% ± 1% with spectral dispersion), stable but non-zero closure phases (e.g. 115° ± 2°) which we attribute to internal optical path differences (OPD) that can be calibrated. We validate a new static and an achromatic phase shifting IO function close to the nominal 90° value (e.g. 80° ± 1°). All these observables show limited chromaticity over the H band range. Conclusions. Our results demonstrate that such ABCD-like beam combiners are particularly well suited for interferometric combination of multiple beams to achieve aperture synthesis imaging. This opens the way to extending this technique to all near infrared wavelengths and in particular, the K band.
We present new long-baseline spectro-interferometric observations of the Herbig Ae star HD 163296 (MWC 275) obtained in the H and K bands with the AMBER instrument at the VLTI. The observations cover ...a range of spatial resolutions between ~3 and ~12 milliarcseconds, with a spectral resolution of ~30. With a total of 1481 visibilities and 432 closure phases, they represent the most comprehensive (u,v) coverage achieved so far for a young star. The circumstellar material is resolved at the sub-AU spatial scale and closure phase measurements indicate a small but significant deviation from point-symmetry. We discuss the results assuming that the near-infrared excess in HD 163296 is dominated by the emission of a circumstellar disk. A successful fit to the spectral energy distribution, near-infrared visibilities and closure phases is found with a model in which a dominant contribution to the H and K band emission originates in an optically thin, smooth and point-symmetric region extending from about 0.1 to 0.45 AU. At a distance of 0.45 AU from the star, silicates condense, the disk becomes optically thick and develops a puffed-up rim, whose skewed emission can account for the non-zero closure phases. We discuss the source of the inner disk emission and tentatively exclude dense molecular gas as well as optically thin atomic or ionized gas as its possible origin. We propose instead that the smooth inner emission is produced by very refractory grains in a partially cleared region, extending to at least ~0.5 AU. If so, we may be observing the disk of HD 163296 just before it reaches the transition disk phase. However, we note that the nature of the refractory grains or, in fact, even the possibility of any grain surviving at the very high temperatures we require (~$2100{-}2300$ K at 0.1 AU from the star) is unclear and should be investigated further.
Context. MWC158 is a star with the Be phenomenon that shows strong spectrophotometric variability (in lines and in UV and visible continuum) attributed to phases of shell ejection. The evolutionary ...stage of this star was never clearly determined. Previous interferometric, spectropolarimetric and spectro-interferometric studies suggest a disk morphology for its environment. Aims. We investigate the origin of the variability within the inner astronomical unit of the central star using near-infrared interferometric observations with PIONIER at the VLTI over a two-year period. Methods. We performed an image reconstruction of the circumstellar environment using the SPARCO method. We discovered that the morphology of the circumstellar environment could vary on timescales of weeks or days. We carried out a parametric fit of the data with a model consisting of a star, a disk and a bright spot that represents a brighter emission in the disk. Results. We detect strong morphological changes in the first astronomical unit around the star, that happen on a timescale of few months. We cannot account for such variability well with a binary model. Our parametric model fits the data well and allows us to extract the location of the asymmetry for different epochs. Conclusions. For the first time, we detect a morphological variability in the environment of MWC158. This variability is reproduced by a model of a disk and a bright spot. The locations of the bright spot suggest that it is located in the disk, but its precise motion is not determined. The origin of the asymmetry in the disk is complex and may be related to asymmetric shell ejections.
Our Solar System was formed from a cloud of gas and dust. Most of the dust mass is contained in amorphous silicates, yet crystalline silicates are abundant throughout the Solar System, reflecting the ...thermal and chemical alteration of solids during planet formation. (Even primitive bodies such as comets contain crystalline silicates.) Little is known about the evolution of the dust that forms Earth-like planets. Here we report spatially resolved detections and compositional analyses of these building blocks in the innermost two astronomical units of three proto-planetary disks. We find the dust in these regions to be highly crystallized, more so than any other dust observed in young stars until now. In addition, the outer region of one star has equal amounts of pyroxene and olivine, whereas the inner regions are dominated by olivine. The spectral shape of the inner-disk spectra shows surprising similarity with Solar System comets. Radial-mixing models naturally explain this resemblance as well as the gradient in chemical composition. Our observations imply that silicates crystallize before any terrestrial planets are formed, consistent with the composition of meteorites in the Solar System.
Analytical relations are derived for the amplitude of astrometric, photometric, and radial velocity (RV) perturbations caused by a single rotating spot. The relative power of the starspot jitter is ...estimated and compared with the available data for κ1 Ceti and HD 166435, as well as with numerical simulations for κ1 Ceti and the Sun. A Sun-like star inclined at i = 90° at 10 pc is predicted to have an rms jitter of 0.087 μas in its astrometric position along the equator, and 0.38 m s-1 in radial velocities. If the presence of spots due to stellar activity is the ultimate limiting factor for planet detection, the sensitivity of SIM Lite to Earth-like planets in habitable zones is about an order of magnitude higher than the sensitivity of prospective ultra-precise RV observations of nearby stars.
Context. The putative tori surrounding the accretion disks of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) play a fundamental role in the unification scheme of AGNs. Infrared long-baseline interferometry allows us ...to study the inner dust distribution in AGNs with unprecedented spatial resolution over a wide infrared wavelength range. Aims. Near- and mid-infrared interferometry is used to investigate the milli-arcsecond-scale dust distribution in the type 1.5 Seyfert nucleus of NGC 3783. Methods. We observed NGC 3783 with the VLTI/AMBER instrument in the K-band and compared our observations with models. Results. From the K-band observations, we derive a ring-fit torus radius of 0.74 ± 0.23 mas or 0.16 ± 0.05 pc. We compare this size with infrared interferometric observations of other AGNs and UV/optical-infrared reverberation measurements. For the interpretation of our observations, we simultaneously model our near- and mid-infrared visibilities and the spectral energy distribution (SED) with a temperature/density-gradient model including an additional inner hot 1400 K ring component.
Context. The emergence of optical interferometers with three and more telescopes allows image reconstruction of astronomical objects at the milliarcsecond scale. However, some objects contain ...components with very different spectral energy distributions (SED; i.e. different temperatures), which produces strong chromatic effects on the interferograms that have to be managed with care by image reconstruction algorithms. For example, the gray approximation for the image reconstruction process results in a degraded image if the total (u,v)-coverage given by the spectral supersynthesis is used. Aims. The relative flux contribution of the central object and an extended structure changes with wavelength for different temperatures. For young stellar objects, the known characteristics of the central object (i.e., stellar SED), or even the fit of the spectral index and the relative flux ratio, can be used to model the central star while reconstructing the image of the extended structure separately. Methods. We present a new method, called SPARCO (semi-parametric algorithm for the image reconstruction of chromatic objects), which describes the spectral characteristics of both the central object and the extended structure to consider them properly when reconstructing the image of the surrounding environment. We adapted two image-reconstruction codes ( Macim , Squeeze , and MiRA ) to implement this new prescription. Results. SPARCO is applied using Macim , Squeeze , and MiRA on a young stellar object model and also on literature data on HR 5999 in the near-infrared with the VLTI. We obtain smoother images of the modeled circumstellar emission and improve the chi super(2) by a factor 9. Conclusions. This method paves the way to improved aperture-synthesis imaging of several young stellar objects with existing datasets. More generally, the approach can be used on astrophysical sources with similar features, such as active galactic nuclei, planetary nebulae, and asymptotic giant branch stars.
Aims: Stellar activity is a potentially important limitation to the detection of low-mass extrasolar planets with indirect methods (radial velocity, photometry, astrometry). In previous papers, using ...the Sun as a proxy, we investigated the impact of stellar activity (spots, plages, convection) on the detectability of an Earth-mass planet in the habitable zone (HZ) of solar-type stars with radial velocity techniques. We here extend the detectability study to astrometry. Methods: We used the sunspot and plages properties recorded over one solar cycle to infer the astrometric variations that a Sun-like star seen edge-on, 10 pc away, would exhibit, if covered by such spots/bright structures. We compare the signal to the one expected from the astrometric wobble (0.3 μas) of such a star surrounded by a one Earth-mass planet in the HZ. We also briefly investigate higher levels of activity. Results: The activity-induced astrometric signal along the equatorial plane has an amplitude of typically less than 0.2 μas (rms = 0.07 μas), lower than the one expected from an Earth-mass planet at 1 AU. Hence, for this level of activity, the detectability is governed by the instrumental precision rather than the activity. We show that for instance a one Earth-mass planet at 1 AU would be detected with a monthly visit during less than five years and an instrumental precision of 0.8 μas. A level of activity five times higher would still allow this detection with a precision of 0.35 μas. We conclude that astrometry is an attractive approach to search for such planets around solar type stars with most levels of stellar activity.
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