Improving interferometric null depth measurements using statistical distributions: theory and rst results with the Palomar Fiber Nuller

TL;DR: In this article, a self-calibrated statistical analysis method was developed for the reduction of nulling interferometry data, which uses the statistical distributions of the uctuating null depth and beam intensities to retrieve the astrophysical null depth in the presence of fast atmospheric uctuations.

Abstract: A new "self-calibrated" statistical analysis method has been developed for the reduction of nulling interferometry data. The idea is to use the statistical distributions of the uctuating null depth and beam intensities to retrieve the astrophysical null depth (or equivalently the object’s visibility) in the presence of fast atmospheric uctuations. The approach yields an accuracy much better (about an order of magnitude) than is presently possible with standard data reduction methods, because the astrophysical null depth accuracy is no longer limited by the magnitude of the instrumental phase and intensity errors but by uncertainties on their probability distributions. This approach was tested on the sky with the two-aperture ber nulling instrument mounted on the Palomar Hale telescope. Using our new data analysis approach alone - and no observations of calibrators - , we