Beyond the diffraction limit of optical/IR interferometers

Abstract

Context. Spectrally resolved long-baseline optical/IR interferometry of rotating stars opens perspectives to investigate their fundamental parameters and the physical mechanisms that govern their interior, photosphere, and circumstellar envelope structures. Aims: Based on the signatures of stellar rotation on observed interferometric wavelength-differential phases, we aim to measure angular diameters, rotation velocities, and orientation of stellar rotation axes. Methods: We used the AMBER focal instrument at ESO-VLTI in its high-spectral resolution mode to record interferometric data on the fast rotator Achernar. Differential phases centered on the hydrogen Br γ line (K band) were obtained during four almost consecutive nights with a continuous Earth-rotation synthesis during ~5 h/night, corresponding to ~60° position angle coverage per baseline. These observations were interpreted with our numerical code dedicated to long-baseline interferometry of rotating stars. Results: By fitting our model to Achernar's differential phases from AMBER, we could measure its equatorial radius Req = 11.6 ± 0.3 Rsun, equatorial rotation velocity Veq = 298 ± 9 km s-1, rotation axis inclination angle i = 101.5 ± 5.2°, and rotation axis position angle (from North to East) PArot = 34.9 ± 1.6°. From these parameters and the stellar distance, the equatorial angular diameter ⌀eq of Achernar is found to be 2.45 ± 0.09 mas, which is compatible with previous values derived from the commonly used visibility amplitude. In particular, ⌀eq and PArot measured in this work with VLTI/AMBER are compatible with the values previously obtained with VLTI/VINCI. Conclusions: The present paper, based on real data, demonstrates the super-resolution potential of differential interferometry for measuring sizes, rotation velocities, and orientation of rotating stars in cases where visibility amplitudes are unavailable and/or when the star is partially or poorly resolved. In particular, we showed that differential phases allow the measurement of sizes up to ~4 times smaller than the diffraction-limited angular resolution of the interferometer. Based on observations performed at ESO, Chile under AMBER-consortium GTO programme ID 084.D-0456.Full Fig. 5 is available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.orgThe FITS tables of the reduced data are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/545/A130