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We resolve the multiple images of the binary-lens microlensing event ASASSN-22av using the GRAVITY instrument of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). The light curves show weak binary perturbations, complicating the analysis, but the joint modeling with the VLTI data breaks several degeneracies, arriving at a strongly favored solution. Thanks to precise measurements of angular Einstein radius \theta_E = 0.726 +/- 0.002 mas and microlens parallax, we determine that the lens system consists of two M dwarfs with masses of M_1 = 0.261 +/- 0.009 M_sun and M_2 = 0.252 +/- 0.017 M_sun, a projected separation of r_\perp = 7.42 +/- 0.33 AU and a distance of D_L = 2.31 +/- 0.09 kpc. The successful VLTI observations of ASASSN-22av open up a new path for studying intermediate-separation (i.e., a few AUs) stellar-mass binaries, including those containing dark compact objects such as neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes., Comment: see the ancillary file for animation associated with Fig. 8

Studying the orbital motion of stars around Sagittarius A* in the Galactic Center provides a unique opportunity to probe the gravitational potential near the supermassive black hole at the heart of our Galaxy. Interferometric data obtained with the GRAVITY instrument at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) since 2016 has allowed us to achieve unprecedented precision in tracking the orbits of these stars. GRAVITY data have been key to detecting the in-plane, prograde Schwarzschild precession of the orbit of the star S2, as predicted by General Relativity. By combining astrometric and spectroscopic data from multiple stars, including S2, S29, S38, and S55 - for which we have data around their time of pericenter passage with GRAVITY - we can now strengthen the significance of this detection to an approximately $10 \sigma$ confidence level. The prograde precession of S2's orbit provides valuable insights into the potential presence of an extended mass distribution surrounding Sagittarius A*, which could consist of a dynamically relaxed stellar cusp comprised of old stars and stellar remnants, along with a possible dark matter spike. Our analysis, based on two plausible density profiles - a power-law and a Plummer profile - constrains the enclosed mass within the orbit of S2 to be consistent with zero, establishing an upper limit of approximately $1200 \, M_\odot$ with a $1 \sigma$ confidence level. This significantly improves our constraints on the mass distribution in the Galactic Center. Our upper limit is very close to the expected value from numerical simulations for a stellar cusp in the Galactic Center, leaving little room for a significant enhancement of dark matter density near Sagittarius A*., Comment: Submitted to A&A on September 17, 2024

We describe a formulation of multi-agents operating within a Cyber-Physical System, resulting in collaborative or adversarial games. We show that the non-determinism inherent in the communication medium between agents and the underlying physical environment gives rise to environment evolution that is a probabilistic function of agents' strategies. We name these emergent properties Cyber Physical Games and study its properties. We present an algorithmic model that determines the most likely system evolution, approximating Cyber Physical Games through Probabilistic Finite State Automata, and evaluate it on collaborative and adversarial versions of the Iterated Boolean Game, comparing theoretical results with simulated ones. Results support the validity of the proposed model, and suggest several required research directions to continue evolving our understanding of Cyber Physical System, as well as how to best design agents that must operate within such environments.

Ensuring artificial intelligence behaves in such a way that is aligned with human values is commonly referred to as the alignment challenge. Prior work has shown that rational agents, behaving in such a way that maximizes a utility function, will inevitably behave in such a way that is not aligned with human values, especially as their level of intelligence goes up. Prior work has also shown that there is no "one true utility function"; solutions must include a more holistic approach to alignment. This paper describes oblivious agents: agents that are architected in such a way that their effective utility function is an aggregation of a known and hidden sub-functions. The hidden component, to be maximized, is internally implemented as a black box, preventing the agent from examining it. The known component, to be minimized, is knowledge of the hidden sub-function. Architectural constraints further influence how agent actions can evolve its internal environment model. We show that an oblivious agent, behaving rationally, constructs an internal approximation of designers' intentions (i.e., infers alignment), and, as a consequence of its architecture and effective utility function, behaves in such a way that maximizes alignment; i.e., maximizing the approximated intention function. We show that, paradoxically, it does this for whatever utility function is used as the hidden component and, in contrast with extant techniques, chances of alignment actually improve as agent intelligence grows.

We evaluate the use of software interpretation to push High Level Synthesis of application-specific accelerators toward a higher level of abstraction. Our methodology is supported by a formal power consumption model that computes the power consumption of accelerator components, accurately predicting the power consumption on new designs from prior optimization estimations. We demonstrate how our approach simplifies the re-use of power optimizations across distinct designs, by leveraging the higher level of design abstraction, using two accelerators representative of the robotics domain, implemented through the Bambu High Level Synthesis tool. Results support the research hypothesis, achieving predictions accurate within +/- 1%., Comment: Accepted at IEEE 10th International Conference on Communications and Electronics (ICCE) 2024

We present a hardware-accelerated SAT solver targeting processor/Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) SoCs. Our solution accelerates the most expensive subroutine of the Davis-Putnam-Logemann-Loveland (DPLL) algorithm, Boolean Constraint Propagation (BCP) through fine-grained FPGA parallelism. Unlike prior state-of-the-art solutions, our solver eliminates costly clause look-up operations by assigning clauses directly to clause processors on the FPGA and dividing large formulas into smaller partitions manageable by FPGA. Partitions are hot-swapped during runtime as required and the supported formula size is limited only by available external memory, not on-chip FPGA memory. We evaluate our solver on a Xilinx Zynq platform with results showing quicker execution time across various formula sizes, subject to formula partitioning strategy. Compared to prior state-of-the-art, we achieve 1.7x and 1.1x speed up on BCP for 2 representative benchmarks and up to 6x total speedup over software-only implementation., Comment: Accepted at ACM GLSVLSI 2024

We present a hardware-accelerated SAT solver suitable for processor/Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) hybrid platforms, which have become the norm in the embedded domain. Our solution addresses a known bottleneck in SAT solving acceleration: unlike prior state-of-the-art solutions that have addressed the same bottleneck by limiting the amount of exploited parallelism, our solver takes advantage of fine-grained parallelization opportunities by hot-swapping FPGA clause assignments at runtime. It is also the first modern completely open-source SAT accelerator, and formula size is limited only by the amount of available external memory, not by on-chip FPGA memory. Evaluation is performed on a Xilinx Zynq platform: experiments support that hardware acceleration results in shorter execution time across varying formula sizes, subject to formula partitioning strategy. We outperform prior state-of-the-art by 1.7x and 1.1x, respectively, for 2 representative benchmarks, and boast up to 6x performance increase over software-only implementation.

Without an agreed-upon definition of intelligence, asking "is this system intelligent?"" is an untestable question. This lack of consensus hinders research, and public perception, on Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly since the rise of generative- and large-language models. Most work on precisely capturing what we mean by "intelligence" has come from the fields of philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science. Because these perspectives are intrinsically linked to intelligence as it is demonstrated by natural creatures, we argue such fields cannot, and will not, provide a sufficiently rigorous definition that can be applied to artificial means. Thus, we present an argument for a purely functional, black-box definition of intelligence, distinct from how that intelligence is actually achieved; focusing on the "what", rather than the "how". To achieve this, we first distinguish other related concepts (sentience, sensation, agency, etc.) from the notion of intelligence, particularly identifying how these concepts pertain to artificial intelligent systems. As a result, we achieve a formal definition of intelligence that is conceptually testable from only external observation, that suggests intelligence is a continuous variable. We conclude by identifying challenges that still remain towards quantifiable measurement. This work provides a useful perspective for both the development of AI, and for public perception of the capabilities and risks of AI., Comment: submitted; under review at "Journal of Intelligent Computing, SPJ"

While deep learning has been very successful in computer vision, real world operating conditions such as lighting variation, background clutter, or occlusion hinder its accuracy across several tasks. Prior work has shown that hybrid models -- combining neural networks and heuristics/algorithms -- can outperform vanilla deep learning for several computer vision tasks, such as classification or tracking. We consider the case of object tracking, and evaluate a hybrid model (PhyOT) that conceptualizes deep neural networks as ``sensors'' in a Kalman filter setup, where prior knowledge, in the form of Newtonian laws of motion, is used to fuse sensor observations and to perform improved estimations. Our experiments combine three neural networks, performing position, indirect velocity and acceleration estimation, respectively, and evaluate such a formulation on two benchmark datasets: a warehouse security camera dataset that we collected and annotated and a traffic camera open dataset. Results suggest that our PhyOT can track objects in extreme conditions that the state-of-the-art deep neural networks fail while its performance in general cases does not degrade significantly from that of existing deep learning approaches. Results also suggest that our PhyOT components are generalizable and transferable., Comment: Accepted at IEEE ICASSP 2024 on December 13, 2023

The amount of Adaptive Optics (AO) telemetry generated by VIS/NIR ground-based observatories is ever greater, leading to a growing need for a standardised data exchange format to support performance analysis and AO research and development activities that involve large-scale telemetry mining, processing, and curation. This paper introduces the Adaptive Optics Telemetry (AOT) data exchange format as a standard for sharing AO telemetry from visible/infrared ground-based observatories. AOT is based on the Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) and aims to provide unambiguous and consistent data access across various systems and configurations, including natural and single/multiple laser guide-star AO systems. We designed AOT focused on two key use cases: atmospheric turbulence parameter estimation and point-spread function reconstruction (PSF-R). We prototyped and tested the design using existing AO telemetry datasets from multiple systems: single conjugate with natural and laser guide stars, tomographic systems with multi-channel wavefront sensors, single and multi wavefront correctors in systems featuring either a Shack-Hartmann or Pyramid as main wavefront sensors. The AOT file structure has been thoroughly defined, specifying data fields, descriptions, data types, units, and expected dimensions. To support this format, we have developed a Python package that enables data conversion, reading, writing and exploration of AOT files, which has been made publicly available and compatible with a general-purpose Python package manager. We demonstrate the flexibility of the AOT format by packaging data from five different instruments, installed on different telescopes.

Monitoring turbulence parameters is crucial in high-angular resolution astronomy for various purposes, such as optimising adaptive optics systems or fringe trackers. The former are present at most modern observatories and will remain significant in the future. This makes them a valuable complementary tool for the estimation of turbulence parameters. The feasibility of estimating turbulence parameters from low-resolution sensors remains untested. We perform seeing estimates for both simulated and on-sky telemetry data sourced from the new adaptive optics module installed on the four Auxiliary Telescopes of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer. The seeing estimates are obtained from a modified and optimised algorithm that employs a chi-squared modal fitting approach to the theoretical von K\'arm\'an model variances. The algorithm is built to retrieve turbulence parameters while simultaneously estimating and accounting for the remaining and measurement error. A Monte Carlo method is proposed for the estimation of the statistical uncertainty of the algorithm. The algorithm is shown to be able to achieve per cent accuracy in the estimation of the seeing with a temporal horizon of 20s on simulated data. A 0.76" +/- 1.2%$|_\mathrm{stat}$ +/- 1.2%$|_\mathrm{sys}$ median seeing was estimated from on-sky data collected from 2018 and 2020. The spatial distribution of the Auxiliary Telescopes across the Paranal Observatory was found to not play a role in the value of the seeing.

A Round Robin study has been carried out to estimate the impact of the human element in small-angle scattering data analysis. Four corrected datasets were provided to participants ready for analysis. All datasets were measured on samples containing spherical scatterers, with two datasets in dilute dispersions, and two from powders. Most of the 46 participants correctly identified the number of populations in the dilute dispersions, with half of the population mean entries within 1.5% and half of the population width entries within 40%, respectively. Due to the added complexity of the structure factor, much fewer people submitted answers on the powder datasets. For those that did, half of the entries for the means and widths were within 44% and 86% respectively. This Round Robin experiment highlights several causes for the discrepancies, for which solutions are proposed., Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures. For the original information sent to RR participants, see https://zenodo.org/record/7506365 . For the anonymized results and Jupyter notebook for analysis, see https://zenodo.org/record/7509710

The GRAVITY instrument has been revolutionary for near-infrared interferometry by pushing sensitivity and precision to previously unknown limits. With the upgrade of GRAVITY and the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) in GRAVITY+, these limits will be pushed even further, with vastly improved sky coverage, as well as faint-science and high-contrast capabilities. This upgrade includes the implementation of wide-field off-axis fringe-tracking, new adaptive optics systems on all Unit Telescopes, and laser guide stars in an upgraded facility. GRAVITY+ will open up the sky to the measurement of black hole masses across cosmic time in hundreds of active galactic nuclei, use the faint stars in the Galactic centre to probe General Relativity, and enable the characterisation of dozens of young exoplanets to study their formation, bearing the promise of another scientific revolution to come at the VLTI., Comment: Published in the ESO Messenger

We present the testbench aimed at integrating the GRAVITY+ adaptive optics GPAO. It consists of two independent elements, one reproducing the Coud{\'e} focus of the telescope, including the telescope deformable mirror mount (with its surface facing down), and one reproducing the Coud{\'e} room opto-mechanical environment, including a downwards-propagating beam, and the telescope mechanical interfaces in order to fit in the new GPAO wavefront sensor. We discuss in this paper the design of this bench and the solutions we adopted to keep the cost low, keep the design compact (allowing it to be fully contained in a 20 sqm clean room), and align the bench independently from the adaptive optics. We also discuss the features we have set in this bench.

Large amounts of Adaptive-Optics (AO) control loop data and telemetry are currently inaccessible to end-users. Broadening access to those data has the potential to change the AO landscape on many fronts, addressing several use-cases such as derivation of the system's PSF, turbulence characterisation and optimisation of system control. We address one of the biggest obstacles to sharing these data: the lack of standardisation, which hinders access. We propose an object-oriented Python package for AO telemetry, whose data model abstracts the user from an underlining archive-ready data exchange standard based on the Flexible Image Transport System (FITS). Its design supports data from a wide range of existing and future AO systems, either in raw format or abstracted from actual instrument details. We exemplify its usage with data from active AO systems on 10m-class observatories, of which two are currently supported (AOF and Keck), with plans for more.

Pushed by a number of advances, electromagnetic observatories have now reached the horizon scale of supermassive black holes. The existence and properties of horizons in our universe is one of the outstanding fundamental issues that can now be addressed. Here we investigate the ability to discriminate between black holes and compact, horizonless objects, focusing on the lensing of hot spots around compact objects. We work in particular with boson and Proca stars as central objects, and show that the absence of a horizon gives rise to a characteristic feature -- photons that plough through the central object and produce an extra image. This feature should be universal for central objects made of matter weakly coupled to the standard model., Comment: 20 pages, 18 figures

Sky survey telescopes and powerful targeted telescopes play complementary roles in astronomy. In order to investigate the nature and characteristics of the motions of very faint objects, a flexibly-pointed instrument capable of high astrometric accuracy is an ideal complement to current astrometric surveys and a unique tool for precision astrophysics. Such a space-based mission will push the frontier of precision astrometry from evidence of Earth-mass habitable worlds around the nearest stars, to distant Milky Way objects, and out to the Local Group of galaxies. As we enter the era of the James Webb Space Telescope and the new ground-based, adaptive-optics-enabled giant telescopes, by obtaining these high precision measurements on key objects that Gaia could not reach, a mission that focuses on high precision astrometry science can consolidate our theoretical understanding of the local Universe, enable extrapolation of physical processes to remote redshifts, and derive a much more consistent picture of cosmological evolution and the likely fate of our cosmos. Already several missions have been proposed to address the science case of faint objects in motion using high precision astrometry missions: NEAT proposed for the ESA M3 opportunity, micro-NEAT for the S1 opportunity, and Theia for the M4 and M5 opportunities. Additional new mission configurations adapted with technological innovations could be envisioned to pursue accurate measurements of these extremely small motions. The goal of this White Paper is to address the fundamental science questions that are at stake when we focus on the motions of faint sky objects and to briefly review instrumentation and mission profiles., Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1910.08028, arXiv:1707.01348

GRAVITY acquisition camera implements four optical functions to track multiple beams of Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI): a) pupil tracker: a $2 \times 2$ lenslet images four pupil reference lasers mounted on the spiders of telescope secondary mirror; b) field tracker: images science object; c) pupil imager: reimages telescope pupil; d) aberration tracker: images a Shack-Hartmann. The estimation of beam stabilization parameters from the acquisition camera detector image is carried out, for every 0.7 s, with a dedicated data reduction software. The measured parameters are used in: a) alignment of GRAVITY with the VLTI; b) active pupil and field stabilization; c) defocus correction and engineering purposes. The instrument is now successfully operational on-sky in closed loop. The relevant data reduction and on-sky characterization results are reported., Comment: SPIE, Optical and Infrared Interferometry and Imaging V, Proceedings Volume 9907, 990727, 2016, "See, https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2233315"

Precise measurements of the S-stars orbiting SgrA* have set strong constraints on the nature of the compact object at the centre of the Milky Way. The presence of a black hole in that region is well established, but its neighboring environment is still an open debate. In that respect, the existence of dark matter in that central region may be detectable due to its strong signatures on the orbits of stars: the main effect is a Newtonian precession which will affect the overall pericentre shift of S2, the latter being a target measurement of the GRAVITY instrument. The exact nature of this dark matter (e.g., stellar dark remnants or diffuse dark matter) is unknown. This article assumes it to be an scalar field of toroidal distribution, associated with ultra-light dark matter particles, surrounding the Kerr black hole. Such a field is a form of "hair" expected in the context of superradiance, a mechanism that extracts rotational energy from the black hole. Orbital signatures for the S2 star are computed and shown to be detectable by GRAVITY. The scalar field can be constrained because the variation of orbital elements depends both on the relative mass of the scalar field to the black hole and on the field mass coupling parameter., Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures. v2: added some references and fixed minor typos to match version in press in MNRAS

During the last two decades, the first generation of beam combiners at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer has proved the importance of optical interferometry for high-angular resolution astrophysical studies in the near- and mid-infrared. With the advent of 4-beam combiners at the VLTI, the u-v coverage per pointing increases significantly, providing an opportunity to use reconstructed images as powerful scientific tools. Therefore, interferometric imaging is already a key feature of the new generation of VLTI instruments, as well as for other interferometric facilities like CHARA and JWST. It is thus imperative to account for the current image reconstruction capabilities and their expected evolutions in the coming years. Here, we present a general overview of the current situation of optical interferometric image reconstruction with a focus on new wavelength-dependent information, highlighting its main advantages and limitations. As an Appendix we include several cookbooks describing the usage and installation of several state-of-the art image reconstruction packages. To illustrate the current capabilities of the software available to the community, we recovered chromatic images, from simulated MATISSE data, using the MCMC software SQUEEZE. With these images, we aim at showing the importance of selecting good regularization functions and their impact on the reconstruction., Comment: Accepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy as part of the topical collection: Future of Optical-infrared Interferometry in Europe

The estimation of atmospheric turbulence parameters is of relevance for: a) site evaluation & characterisation; b) prediction of the point spread function; c) live assessment of error budgets and optimisation of adaptive optics performance; d) optimisation of fringe trackers for long baseline optical interferometry. The ubiquitous deployment of Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors in large telescopes makes them central for atmospheric turbulence parameter estimation via adaptive optics telemetry. Several methods for the estimation of the Fried parameter and outer scale have been developed, most of which are based on the fitting of Zernike polynomial coefficients variances reconstructed from the telemetry. The non-orthogonality of Zernike polynomial derivatives introduces modal cross coupling, which affects the variances. Furthermore, the finite resolution of the sensor introduces aliasing. In this article the impact of these effects on atmospheric turbulence parameter estimation is addressed with simulations. It is found that cross coupling is the dominant bias. An iterative algorithm to overcome it is presented. Simulations are conducted for typical ranges of the outer scale (4 to 32m), Fried parameter (10 cm) and noise in the variances (signal-to-noise ratio of 10 and above). It is found that, using the algorithm, both parameters are recovered with sub-percent accuracy., Comment: Accepted for publication by MNRAS

This work presents an interferometric study of the massive-binary fraction in the Orion Trapezium Cluster with the recently comissioned GRAVITY instrument. We observe a total of 16 stars of mainly OB spectral type. We find three previously unknown companions for $\theta ^1$ Ori B, $\theta ^2$ Ori B, and $\theta ^2$ Ori C. We determine a separation for the previously suspected companion of NU Ori. We confirm four companions for $\theta ^1$ Ori A, $\theta ^1$ Ori C, $\theta ^1$ Ori D, and $\theta ^2$ Ori A, all with substantially improved astrometry and photometric mass estimates. We refine the orbit of the eccentric high-mass binary $\theta ^1$ Ori C and we are able to derive a new orbit for $\theta ^1$ Ori D. We find a system mass of 21.7 $M_{\odot}$ and a period of $53$ days. Together with other previously detected companions seen in spectroscopy or direct imaging, eleven of the 16 high-mass stars are multiple systems. We obtain a total number of 22 companions with separations up to 600 AU. The companion fraction of the early B and O stars in our sample is about 2, significantly higher than in earlier studies of mostly OB associations. The separation distribution hints towards a bimodality. Such a bimodality has been previously found in A stars, but rarely in OB binaries, which up to this point have been assumed to be mostly compact with a tail of wider companions. We also do not find a substantial population of equal-mass binaries. The observed distribution of mass ratios declines steeply with mass, and like the direct star counts, indicates that our companions follow a standard power law initial mass function. Again, this is in contrast to earlier findings of flat mass ratio distributions in OB associations. We exclude collision as a dominant formation mechanism but find no clear preference for core accretion or competitive accretion., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A

Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensing relies on accurate spot centre measurement. Several algorithms were developed with this aim, mostly focused on precision, i.e. minimizing random errors. In the solar and extended scene community, the importance of the accuracy (bias error due to peak-locking, quantisation or sampling) of the centroid determination was identified and solutions proposed. But these solutions only allow partial bias corrections. To date, no systematic study of the bias error was conducted. This article bridges the gap by quantifying the bias error for different correlation peak-finding algorithms and types of sub-aperture images and by proposing a practical solution to minimize its effects. Four classes of sub-aperture images (point source, elongated laser guide star, crowded field and solar extended scene) together with five types of peak-finding algorithms (1D parabola, the centre of gravity, Gaussian, 2D quadratic polynomial and pyramid) are considered, in a variety of signal-to-noise conditions. The best performing peak-finding algorithm depends on the sub-aperture image type, but none is satisfactory to both bias and random errors. A practical solution is proposed that relies on the anti-symmetric response of the bias to the sub-pixel position of the true centre. The solution decreases the bias by a factor of ~7 to values of < 0.02 pix. The computational cost is typically twice of current cross-correlation algorithms., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

In the context of the ESA M5 (medium mission) call we proposed a new satellite mission, Theia, based on relative astrometry and extreme precision to study the motion of very faint objects in the Universe. Theia is primarily designed to study the local dark matter properties, the existence of Earth-like exoplanets in our nearest star systems and the physics of compact objects. Furthermore, about 15 $\%$ of the mission time was dedicated to an open observatory for the wider community to propose complementary science cases. With its unique metrology system and "point and stare" strategy, Theia's precision would have reached the sub micro-arcsecond level. This is about 1000 times better than ESA/Gaia's accuracy for the brightest objects and represents a factor 10-30 improvement for the faintest stars (depending on the exact observational program). In the version submitted to ESA, we proposed an optical (350-1000nm) on-axis TMA telescope. Due to ESA Technology readiness level, the camera's focal plane would have been made of CCD detectors but we anticipated an upgrade with CMOS detectors. Photometric measurements would have been performed during slew time and stabilisation phases needed for reaching the required astrometric precision., Comment: http://theia.phyip3.dur.ac.uk

Assessing the quality of aperture synthesis maps is relevant for benchmarking image reconstruction algorithms, for the scientific exploitation of data from optical long-baseline interferometers, and for the design/upgrade of new/existing interferometric imaging facilities. Although metrics have been proposed in these contexts, no systematic study has been conducted on the selection of a robust metric for quality assessment. This article addresses the question: what is the best metric to assess the quality of a reconstructed image? It starts by considering several metrics, and selecting a few based on general properties. Then, a variety of image reconstruction cases is considered. The observational scenarios are phase closure and phase referencing at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), for a combination of two, three, four and six telescopes. End-to-end image reconstruction is accomplished with the MiRA software, and several merit functions are put to test. It is found that convolution by an effective point spread function is required for proper image quality assessment. The effective angular resolution of the images is superior to naive expectation based on the maximum frequency sampled by the array. This is due to the prior information used in the aperture synthesis algorithm and to the nature of the objects considered. The l1 norm is the most robust of all considered metrics, because being linear it is less sensitive to image smoothing by high regularisation levels. For the cases considered, this metric allows the implementation of automatic quality assessment of reconstructed images, with a performance similar to human selection., Comment: Key words: instrumentation: high angular resolution - instrumentation: interferosmeters - methods: data analysis - techniques: high angular resolution - techniques: image processing - techniques: interferometric. 18 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables

(abridged) A complete census of planetary systems around a volume-limited sample of solar-type stars (FGK dwarfs) in the Solar neighborhood with uniform sensitivity down to Earth-mass planets within their Habitable Zones out to several AUs would be a major milestone in extrasolar planets astrophysics. This fundamental goal can be achieved with a mission concept such as NEAT - the Nearby Earth Astrometric Telescope. NEAT is designed to carry out space-borne extremely-high-precision astrometric measurements sufficient to detect dynamical effects due to orbiting planets of mass even lower than Earth's around the nearest stars. Such a survey mission would provide the actual planetary masses and the full orbital geometry for all the components of the detected planetary systems down to the Earth-mass limit. The NEAT performance limits can be achieved by carrying out differential astrometry between the targets and a set of suitable reference stars in the field. The NEAT instrument design consists of an off-axis parabola single-mirror telescope, a detector with a large field of view made of small movable CCDs located around a fixed central CCD, and an interferometric calibration system originating from metrology fibers located at the primary mirror. The proposed mission architecture relies on the use of two satellites operating at L2 for 5 years, flying in formation and offering a capability of more than 20,000 reconfigurations (alternative option uses deployable boom). The NEAT primary science program will encompass an astrometric survey of our 200 closest F-, G- and K-type stellar neighbors, with an average of 50 visits. The remaining time might be allocated to improve the characterization of the architecture of selected planetary systems around nearby targets of specific interest (low-mass stars, young stars, etc.) discovered by Gaia, ground-based high-precision radial-velocity surveys., Comment: Accepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy. The full member list of the NEAT proposal and the news about the project are available at http://neat.obs.ujf-grenoble.fr. The final publication is available at http://www.springerlink.com

The Z CMa binary is understood to undergo both FU Orionis (FUOR) and EX Orionis (EXOR) type outbursts. While the SE component has been spectro- scopically identified as an FUOR, the NW component, a Herbig Be star, is the source of the EXOR outbursts. The system has been identified as the source of a large outflow, however, previous studies have failed to identify the driver. Here we present adaptive optics (AO) assisted [FeII] spectro-images which reveal for the first time the presence of two jets. Observations made using OSIRIS at the Keck Observatory show the Herbig Be star to be the source of the parsec-scale outflow, which within 2'' of the source shows signs of wiggling and the FUOR to '' be driving a ~ 0.4 jet. The wiggling of the Herbig Be star's jet is evidence for an additional companion which could in fact be generating the EXOR outbursts, the last of which began in 2008 (Grankin & Artemenko 2009). Indeed the dy- namical scale of the wiggling corresponds to a time-scale of 4-8 years which is in agreement with the time-scale of these outbursts. The spectro-images also show a bow-shock shaped feature and possible associated knots. The origin of this structure is as of yet unclear. Finally interesting low velocity structure is also observed. One possibility is that it originates in a wide-angle outflow launched from a circumbinary disk., Comment: accepted by ApJ letters

One of the aims of next generation optical interferometric instrumentation is to be able to make use of information contained in the visibility phase to construct high dynamic range images. Radio and optical interferometry are at the two extremes of phase corruption by the atmosphere. While in radio it is possible to obtain calibrated phases for the science objects, in the optical this is currently not possible. Instead, optical interferometry has relied on closure phase techniques to produce images. Such techniques allow only to achieve modest dynamic ranges. However, with high contrast objects, for faint targets or when structure detail is needed, phase referencing techniques as used in radio interferometry, should theoretically achieve higher dynamic ranges for the same number of telescopes. Our approach is not to provide evidence either for or against the hypothesis that phase referenced imaging gives better dynamic range than closure phase imaging. Instead we wish to explore the potential of this technique for future optical interferometry and also because image reconstruction in the optical using phase referencing techniques has only been performed with limited success. We have generated simulated, noisy, complex visibility data, analogous to the signal produced in radio interferometers, using the VLTI as a template. We proceeded with image reconstruction using the radio image reconstruction algorithms contained in AIPS IMAGR (CLEAN algorithm). Our results show that image reconstruction is successful in most of our science cases, yielding images with a 4 milliarcsecond resolution in K band. (abridged), Comment: 11 pages, 36 figures

Classically, optical and near-infrared interferometry have relied on closure phase techniques to produce images. Such techniques allow us to achieve modest dynamic ranges. In order to test the feasibility of next generation optical interferometers in the context of the VLTI-spectro-imager (VSI), we have embarked on a study of image reconstruction and analysis. Our main aim was to test the influence of the number of telescopes, observing nights and distribution of the visibility points on the quality of the reconstructed images. Our results show that observations using six Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) during one complete night yield the best results in general and is critical in most science cases; the number of telescopes is the determining factor in the image reconstruction outcome. In terms of imaging capabilities, an optical, six telescope VLTI-type configuration and ~200 meter baseline will achieve 4 mas spatial resolution, which is comparable to ALMA and almost 50 times better than JWST will achieve at 2.2 microns. Our results show that such an instrument will be capable of imaging, with unprecedented detail, a plethora of sources, ranging from complex stellar surfaces to microlensing events., Comment: 11 pages, 26 figures

Preparing observing proposals is a classical exercise in an observational astronomer's life. In this paper, we summarize the general requirements to write a good proposal for the ESO telescopes, and eventually obtain telescope time. We detail in particular the different proposal types, how they are evaluated by ESO, what they should contain and what to avoid. The advice given in the present paper are applicable to observing proposals for the AMBER and MIDI instruments of the VLTI, but also to other ESO instruments, and to some extent to other observatories., Comment: 13 pages, to be published in the Proceedings of the 2006 Euro Summer School "Observation and Data Reduction with the VLTI", 4-16 June 2006, Goutelas (France), http://vltischool.obs.ujf-grenoble.fr/

VLTi Spectro-Imager (VSI) is a proposition for a second generation VLTI instrument which is aimed at providing the ESO community with the capability of performing image synthesis at milli-arcsecond angular resolution. VSI provides the VLTI with an instrument able to combine 4 telescopes in a baseline version and optionally up to 6 telescopes in the near-infrared spectral domain with moderate to high spectral resolution. The instrument contains its own fringe tracker in order to relax the constraints onto the VLTI infrastructure. VSI will do imaging at the milli-arcsecond scale with spectral resolution of: a) the close environments of young stars probing the initial conditions for planet formation; b) the surfaces of stars; c) the environment of evolved stars, stellar remnants and stellar winds, and d) the central region of active galactic nuclei and supermassive black holes. The science cases allowed us to specify the astrophysical requirements of the instrument and to define the necessary studies of the science group for phase A., Comment: 12 pages

VITRUV is a second generation spectro-imager for the PRIMA enabled Very Large Telescope Interferometer. By combining simultaneously up to 8 telescopes VITRUV makes the VLTI up to 6 times more efficient. This operational gain allows two novel scientific methodologies: 1) massive surveys of sizes; 2) routine interferometric imaging. The science cases presented concentrate on the qualitatively new routine interferometric imaging methodology. The science cases are not exhaustive but complementary to the PRIMA reference mission. The focus is on: a) the close environment of young stars probing for the initial conditions of planet formation and disk evolution; b) the surfaces of stars tackling dynamos, activity, pulsation, mass-loss and evolution; c) revealing the origin of the extraordinary morphologies of Planetary Nebulae and related stars; d) studying the accretion-ejection structures of stellar black-holes (microquasars) in our galaxy; e) unveiling the different interacting components (torus, jets, BLRs) of Active Galactic Nuclei; and f) probing the environment of nearby supermassive black-holes and relativistic effects in the Galactic Center black-hole., Comment: 15 pages. The Power of Optical/IR Interferometry: Recent Scientific Results and 2nd Generation VLTI Instrumentation, Allemagne (2005) in press

The VITRUV project has the objective to deliver milli-arcsecond spectro-images of the environment of compact sources like young stars, active galaxies and evolved stars to the community. This instrument of the VLTI second generation based on the integrated optics technology is able to combine from 4 to 8 beams from the VLT telescopes. Working primarily in the near infrared, it will provide intermediate to high spectral resolutions and eventually polarization analysis. This paper summarizes the result from the concept study led within the Joint Research Activity advanced instruments of the OPTICON program., Comment: In "The Power of Optical/IR Interferometry: Recent Scientific Results and 2nd Generation VLTI Instrumentation", Allemagne (2005) in press

Motivated by recent subarcsecond resolution observations of jets from T Tauri stars, we extend the work of \citep{Safier93a, Safier93b} by computing the thermal and ionization structure of self-similar, magnetically-driven, atomic disk winds heated by ambipolar diffusion. Improvements over his work include: (1) new magnetized cold jet solutions consistent with the underlying accretion disk \citep{Ferreira97}; (2) a more accurate treatment of ionization and ion-neutral momentum exchange rates; and (3) predictions for spatially resolved forbidden line emission (maps, long-slit spectra, and line ratios), presented in a companion paper, \cite{Garcia2001b}. As in \citep{Safier93a}, we obtain jets with a temperature plateau around $10^4$ K, but ionization fractions are revised downward by a factor of 10-100. This is due to previous omission of thermal speeds in ion-neutral momentum-exchange rates and to different jet solutions. The physical origin of the hot temperature plateau is outlined. In particular we present three analytical criteria for the presence of a hot plateau, applicable to any given MHD wind solution where ambipolar diffusion and adiabatic expansion are the dominant heating and cooling terms. We finally show that, for solutions favored by observations, the jet thermal structure remains consistent with the usual approximations used for MHD jet calculations (thermalized, perfectly conducting, single hydromagnetic cold fluid calculations)., Comment: Astronomy & Astrophysics (in press) High resolution figures at ftp://ftp.astro.up.pt/pub/preprints/95.ps.gz

Thermal and ionization structures of self-similar, magnetically-driven disk winds obtained in a companion paper \cite{Garcia2001a} are used to compute a series of jet synthetic observations. These include spatially resolved forbidden line emission maps, long-slit spectra, as well as line ratios. Line profiles and jet widths appear to be good tracers of the wind dynamics and collimation, whereas line ratios essentially trace gas excitation conditions. All the above diagnostics are confronted to observations of T Tauri star microjets. Convolution by the observing beam is shown to be essential for a meaningful test of the models. We find that jet widths and qualitative variations in line profiles with both distance and line tracers are well reproduced. A low-velocity [\ion{O}{i}] component is also obtained, originating from the disk wind base. However, this component is too weak, predicted maximum velocities are too high and electronic and total densities are too low. Denser and slower magnetized winds, launched from disks with warm chromospheres, might resolve these discrepancies., Comment: Astronomy & Astrophysics (in press) High resolution figures at ftp://ftp.astro.up.pt/pub/preprints/96.ps.gz

We summarize results on the thermal and ionization structure of self-similar, magnetically-driven, atomic disk winds heated by ambipolar diffusion. We improve upon earlier work by Safier by considering (1) new MHD solutions consistent with underlying cold keplerian disk equilibrium, (2) a more accurate treatment of the micro-physics, and (3) predictions for spatially resolved forbidden line emission (maps, long-slit spectra). The temperature plateau $\simeq 10^4$ K found earlier is recovered, but ionization fractions are revised downward by a factor of 10, due to previous omission of thermal speeds in ion-neutral momentum-exchange rates. The physical origin of the temperature plateau is outlined. Predictions are then compared with T~Tauri star observations, with emphasis on the necessity of suitable beam convolution. Jet widths and variations in line profiles with distance and line tracer are well reproduced. However, predicted maximum velocities are too high, total densities too low, and the low-velocity [OI] component is too weak. Denser, slower MHD winds from warm disks might resolve these discrepancies., Comment: To apear in Rev Mex A A, special issue : Emission lines from jet flows, ed . L. Binette and W. Henney, 2001