Characterization of the transmitted near-infrared wavefront error for the GRAVITY/VLTI Coudé Infrared Adaptive Optics System.

The adaptive optics system for the second-generation VLT-interferometer (VLTI) instrument GRAVITY consists of a novel cryogenic near-infrared wavefront sensor to be installed at each of the four unit telescopes of the Very Large Telescope (VLT). Feeding the GRAVITY wavefront sensor with light in the 1.4 to 2.4 micrometer band, while suppressing laser light originating from the GRAVITY metrology system, custom-built optical components are required. In this paper, we present the development of a quantitative near-infrared point diffraction interferometric characterization technique, which allows measuring the transmitted wavefront error of the silicon entrance windows of the wavefront sensor cryostat. The technique can be readily applied to quantitative phase measurements in the near-infrared regime. Moreover, by employing a slightly off-axis optical setup, the proposed method can optimize the required spatial resolution and enable real time measurement capabilities. The feasibility of the proposed setup is demonstrated, followed by theoretical analysis and experimental results. Our experimental results show that the phase error repeatability in the nanometer regime can be achieved.

A dynamical calibration of the mass-luminosity relation at very low stellar masses and young ages.

Mass is the most fundamental parameter of a star, yet it is also one of the most difficult to measure directly. In general, astronomers estimate stellar masses by determining the luminosity and using the 'mass-luminosity' relationship, but this relationship has never been accurately calibrated for young, low-mass stars and brown dwarfs. Masses for these low-mass objects are therefore constrained only by theoretical models. A new high-contrast adaptive optics camera enabled the discovery of a young (50 million years) companion only 0.156 arcseconds (2.3 au) from the more luminous (> 120 times brighter) star AB Doradus A. Here we report a dynamical determination of the mass of the newly resolved low-mass companion AB Dor C, whose mass is 0.090 +/- 0.005 solar masses. Given its measured 1-2-micrometre luminosity, we have found that the standard mass-luminosity relations overestimate the near-infrared luminosity of such objects by about a factor of approximately 2.5 at young ages. The young, cool objects hitherto thought to be substellar in mass are therefore about twice as massive, which means that the frequency of brown dwarfs and planetary mass objects in young stellar clusters has been overestimated.