Analytical target-agnostic piston sensing for segmented telescopes using sparse redundant baseline pairs.

Area of Science:

• Optical astronomy
• Interferometry
• Image processing

Background:

• High resolution in segmented telescopes relies on precise piston correction.
• Phasing segmented telescopes using extended objects remains a significant challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an analytical, target-agnostic phasing approach for segmented telescopes.
• To address the challenges of phasing with extended objects and improve resolution.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing redundant baseline pairs for phase modulation and decoupling mixed phase distributions.
• Employing phase cross-correlation to remove object phase and resolve piston errors.
• Validating the proposed method through simulations and experimental data.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated decoupling of mixed phase distributions caused by redundant sampling.
• Successfully resolved piston errors by removing object phase via cross-correlation.
• Achieved accurate phasing for segmented telescopes using extended objects.

Conclusions:

• The proposed analytical approach offers a simple, fast, and low-complexity solution for piston monitoring.
• This method is robust against noise and does not require additional optical paths.
• Enables high-resolution imaging of complex scenes with segmented telescopes.