Person:

Phillips, David

We deployed two wavelength calibrators based on laser frequency combs (“astro-combs”) at an astronomical telescope. One astro- comb operated over a 100 nm band in the deep red (∼ 800 nm) and a second operated over a 20 nm band in the blue (∼ 400 nm). We used these red and blue astro-combs to calibrate a high-resolution astrophysical spectrograph integrated with a 1.5 m telescope, and demonstrated calibration precision and stability sufficient to enable detection of changes in stellar radial velocity < 1 m/s.

Kepler-20 is a solar-type star (V = 12.5) hosting a compact system of five transiting planets, all packed within the orbital distance of Mercury in our own solar system. A transition from rocky to gaseous planets with a planetary transition radius of ~1.6 ${R}{\oplus }$ has recently been proposed by several articles in the literature. Kepler-20b (${R}{p}$ ~ 1.9 ${R}{\oplus }$) has a size beyond this transition radius; however, previous mass measurements were not sufficiently precise to allow definite conclusions to be drawn regarding its composition. We present new mass measurements of three of the planets in the Kepler-20 system that are facilitated by 104 radial velocity measurements from the HARPS-N spectrograph and 30 archival Keck/HIRES observations, as well as an updated photometric analysis of the Kepler data and an asteroseismic analysis of the host star (${M}{\star }$ = $0.948\pm 0.051$ ${M}{\odot }$ and ${R}{\star }$ = $0.964\pm 0.018$ ${R}{\odot }$). Kepler-20b is a ${1.868}{-0.034}^{+0.066}$ ${R}{\oplus }$ planet in a 3.7 day period with a mass of ${9.70}{-1.44}^{+1.41}$ ${M}{\oplus }$, resulting in a mean density of ${8.2}{-1.3}^{+1.5}$ ${\rm{g}},{\mathrm{cm}}^{-3}$, indicating a rocky composition with an iron-to-silicate ratio consistent with that of the Earth. This makes Kepler-20b the most massive planet with a rocky composition found to date. Furthermore, we report the discovery of an additional non-transiting planet with a minimum mass of ${19.96}{-3.61}^{+3.08}$ ${M}{\oplus }$ and an orbital period of ~34 days in the gap between Kepler-20f (P ~ 11 days) and Kepler-20d (P ~ 78 days).

Improved wavelength calibrators for high-resolution astrophysical spectrographs will be essential for precision radial velocity (RV) detection of Earth-like exoplanets and direct observation of cosmological deceleration. The astro-comb is a combination of an octave-spanning femtosecond laser frequency comb and a Fabry-Pérot cavity used to achieve calibrator line spacings that can be resolved by an astrophysical spectrograph. Systematic spectral shifts associated with the cavity can be 0.1-1 MHz, corresponding to RV errors of 10-100 cm/s, due to the dispersive properties of the cavity mirrors over broad spectral widths. Although these systematic shifts are very stable, their correction is crucial to high accuracy astrophysical spectroscopy. Here, we demonstrate an in-situ technique to determine the systematic shifts of astro-comb lines due to finite Fabry-Pérot cavity dispersion. The technique is practical for implementation at a telescope-based spectrograph to enable wavelength calibration accuracy better than 10 cm/s.

We present a joint theoretical and experimental characterization of the coherent population trapping (CPT) resonance excited on the (D_1) line of (^{87}Rb) atoms by bichromatic linearly polarized laser light. We observe high-contrast transmission resonances (up to ≈25%), which makes this excitation scheme promising for miniature all-optical atomic clock applications. We also demonstrate cancellation of the first-order light shift by proper choice of the frequencies and relative intensities of the two laser-field components. Our theoretical predictions are in good agreement with the experimental results.

We demonstrate a tunable laser frequency comb operating near 420 nm with mode spacing of 20-50 GHz, usable bandwidth of 15 nm and output power per line of ~20 nW. Using the TRES spectrograph at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory, we characterize this system to an accuracy below 1m/s, suitable for calibrating high-resolution astrophysical spectrographs used, e.g., in exoplanet studies.

We propose a new astro-comb mode-filtering scheme composed of two Fabry–Perot cavities (coined “conjugate Fabry–Perot cavity pair”). Simulations indicate that this new filtering scheme makes the accuracy of astro-comb spectral lines more robust against systematic errors induced by nonlinear processes associated with power-amplifying and spectral-broadening optical fibers.

To realize a broadband, large-line-spacing astro-comb, suitable for wavelength calibration of astrophysical spectrographs, from a narrowband, femtosecond laser frequency comb (“source-comb”), one must integrate the source-comb with three additional components: (1) one or more filter cavities to multiply the source-comb’s repetition rate and thus line spacing; (2) power amplifiers to boost the power of pulses from the filtered comb; and (3) highly nonlinear optical fiber to spectrally broaden the filtered and amplified narrowband frequency comb. In this paper we analyze the interplay of Fabry-Perot (FP) filter cavities with power amplifiers and nonlinear broadening fiber in the design of astro-combs optimized for radial-velocity (RV) calibration accuracy. We present analytic and numeric models and use them to evaluate a variety of FP filtering schemes (labeled as identical, co-prime, fraction-prime, and conjugate cavities), coupled to chirped-pulse amplification (CPA). We find that even a small nonlinear phase can reduce suppression of filtered comb lines, and increase RV error for spectrograph calibration. In general, filtering with two cavities prior to the CPA fiber amplifier outperforms an amplifier placed between the two cavities. In particular, filtering with conjugate cavities is able to provide <1 cm/s RV calibration error with >300 nm wavelength coverage. Such superior performance will facilitate the search for and characterization of Earth-like exoplanets, which requires <10 cm/s RV calibration error.

Preliminary results from an experimental study of slow light in anti-relaxation- coated Rb vapour cells are presented, and the construction and testing of such cells are described. The slow ground state decoherence rate allowed by coated cell walls leads to a dual-structured electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) spectrum with a very narrow (<100Hz) transparency peak on top of a broad pedestal. Such dual-structured EIT permits optical probe pulses to propagate with greatly reduced group velocity on two time scales. Ongoing efforts to optimize the pulse delay in such coated cell systems are discussed.

We show how slow-light pulse delays in realistic electromagnetically-induced-transparency (EIT) media can be determined directly from static transmission spectra. Using only the measured EIT linewidth and off-resonant transmission, the absolute delay of a slow-light pulse in an optically thick, power-broadened medium can be simply and accurately determined, while capturing more complex optical pumping behavior.

We consider the possibility that Lorentz violation can generate differences between the limiting velocities of light and charged matter. Such effects would lead to efficient vacuum Cherenkov radiation or rapid photon decay. The absence of such effects for 104.5 GeV electrons at the Large Electron Positron collider and for 300 GeV photons at the Tevatron therefore constrains this type of Lorentz breakdown. Within the context of the standard-model extension, these ideas imply an experimental bound at the level of -5.8 x 10^{-12} <= \tilde{\kappa}_{tr}-(4/3)c_e^{00} <= 1.2 x 10^{-11} tightening existing laboratory measurements by 3-4 orders of magnitude. Prospects for further improvements with terrestrial and astrophysical methods are discussed.