A&A 377, 721-734 (2001)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20011047
S. Jankov 1,4 - F. Vakili 1 - A. Domiciano de Souza Jr. 1 - E. Janot-Pacheco 2,3
1 -
Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, Département FRESNEL, CNRS UMR 6528,
2130 route de l'Observatoire, Caussols, 06460 St Vallier de Thiey, France
2 -
Observatoire de Meudon, DASGAL, 92195 Meudon, France
3 -
Instituto Astronômico e Geofísico,
Universidade de São
Paulo, CP 9638, 01065-970 São Paulo, SP, Brasil
4 -
Astronomical Observatory Beograd, Volgina 7, Yugoslavia
Received 7 February 2001 / Accepted 16 July 2001
Abstract
In this paper we discuss the combination of
two basic approaches which should potentially generate images
of spatially unresolved stars: differential interferometry and classical spectroscopy.
Doppler Imaging provides indirect observational
information on stellar surface
structures by modeling the rotational modulation of the observed
flux distribution across spectral lines.
Similarly, differential interferometry
makes it possible to measure the disturbances of photocentroid location
of an unresolved star as a function of
wavelength and to deduce the corresponding stellar map.
We present the general formalism to reconstruct
images from spectroscopy and differential interferometry data
for sources with spatially unresolved structures,
and we discuss how their combination
improves the image reconstructions.
This technique, that we call Interferometric-Doppler Imaging (IDI), leads to significant
progress in solving some long-standing problems of Doppler Imaging, such
as latitude smearing and bias as well as the non-uniqueness of the solution in
the special case of an equator-on star.
We treat explicitly the most delicate case of non-radial
stellar pulsations, for which the cancellation of opposite sign
temperature or velocity fields introduces additional difficulties.
The performance
of the method is demonstrated, using the indirect
imaging code built on the basis of the developed approach to reconstruct
an input image from a series of generated noisy spectra.
The problem of image reconstruction from
two-aperture interferometry data has been particularly
addressed since it represents the case of most presently operating interferometers.
Key words: techniques: image processing - techniques: interferometric - techniques: spectroscopic - stars: activity - stars: imaging - stars: oscillations
Over the last three decades, significant progress has been achieved in the development of interferometry at optical wavelengths. The introduction of single aperture speckle interferometry (Labeyrie 1970) and long baseline interferometry (Labeyrie 1975) demonstrated the potential of the technique which uses the instantaneous fine structure in object images ("speckles'') to attain angular resolution close to the diffraction limit of the instrument, despite atmospheric turbulence.
Beckers (1982) described a technique of narrow spectral band speckle interferometry which derives spatial information with a resolution higher than the instrument diffraction limit, using the variations in the spectrum across the astronomical object under study. This technique, called "Differential Speckle Interferometry'' (DSI), measures the relative shift of an object in different spectral bands, and its application is based on the assumption that the shift between two speckle images can be related to the spatial structures of the object under study. Although the phase of the spatial coherence function is corrupted by instrumental and atmospheric phase errors, different methods of data processing can be used to overcome this difficulty. If the two sets of speckle interferograms of the same object are recorded simultaneously at two different wavelengths, but close enough for the Point Spread Function to be the same for both channels, then their ensemble average cross-spectrum provides the information about the relative shift as a fraction of the object size.
Aime et al. (1984),
estimated the sensitivity of the method using
a cross-spectrum analysis technique
which makes it possible to measure
sub-milliarcsecond shifts between two speckle patterns
at two close wavelengths, demonstrating the feasibility of the
DSI technique.
The theoretical estimation of expected signal-to-noise ratios in
differential speckle interferometry (Petrov et al. 1986; Chelli 1989)
demonstrated the practical applicability of the technique to a wide number of sources.
Chelli & Petrov (1995b) described the application of the DSI method to the
measurement of angular diameters, rotational velocities and position
angles of the rotation axes of rotating stars and to the measurement of
the angular vectorial separation and radial velocity differences in
binary systems. They also presented a method to compute the
uncertainties in these parameters
using a numerical computation of the limiting
performances of DSI for these applications.
Chelli & Petrov (1995a)
presented a formalism for
the estimation of the parameters, modeling the brightness and velocity
fields of unresolved or partially resolved astronomical candidates
using the average cross spectrum of speckle patterns recorded in different
spectral channels to define the seeing independent estimator.
They applied it to unresolved sources, when
all the information is contained
in the object spectrum and in the angular vectorial function
representing
the variation of the object photometric barycenter (photocenter)
with wavelength, giving a simple formal expression of the
parameters errors.
In parallel to the development of interferometric techniques, the method of Doppler Imaging allowed access to the spatial structure of non-resolved stars through observation and interpretation of temporal spectroscopic variability along the stellar rotational phase. The fact that the wavelength axis of a star is spatially resolved, due to the rotational Doppler shift, is the basis for the method invented by Deutsch (1970), who used the variation of line equivalent widths to adjust parameters describing the development in spherical harmonics of the stellar surface inhomogeneities. Methods making full use of the profile have been further developed (e.g. Khokhlova & Ryabchikova 1975; Vogt & Penrod 1983). However, these methods suffered from a rather arbitrary procedure and a considerable uncertainty in deciding when a correct solution has been obtained.
The inverse problem in Doppler Imaging is fundamentally ill-conditioned; the solution is very unstable against small perturbations in the data and can be stabilized only by progressively adding more weight to the regularization constraint (Jankov & Foing 1987). In fact, the current status of Doppler Imaging has been achieved by using sophisticated regularization methods able to stabilize the inversion.
Different formulations of the Doppler imaging method have been proposed or applied to various observations: Goncharskij et al. (1982) formulated the problem of finding local abundances for Ap stars, in terms of an integral equation; a Lagrange multiplier method is used to minimize the error between calculated and observed profiles, with a stabilization Tikhonov functional.
Vogt et al. (1987) described the method of Doppler imaging for spotted late-type stars, expressing the relation between local surface intensities and the observed spectral profile in a matrix form, by approximating the projection matrix as the marginal response of data pixel to changes in image pixel. Assuming the shape independence of the local line profile, Jankov (1987) gave a formulation for the indirect imaging method, in terms of a matrix formalism, treating explicitly the problem of nonlinearity of the image data transformation due to variable continuum flux level of spotted late-type stars. Both methods used the Maximum Entropy approach in order to stabilize the inversion.
However, in the case of an equator-on star the solution is intrinsically
non-unique and only additional information (for example, eclipse
modulation of spectral lines) can help to resolve the north-south ambiguity.
The problem of the non-uniqueness of the solution in that special case
was particularly addressed by Petrov (1988) who
showed that the knowledge of
constrains
the model of the star, securing the uniqueness of the reconstructed image.
Jankov et al. (1992) discussed the common situation of regularization of the inverse problem for the interferometric and tomographic methods, while the full mathematical formulation of the problem of stellar Tomographic Imaging from projections provided by spectroscopic and photometric data is given by Jankov & Foing (1992). Although the method was developed for imaging of late-type stars, the basic principles are generally applicable and their formalism is used throughout the present paper. Jankov et al. (1999) presented an approach for imaging of non-radial stellar pulsations that is fully applicable to one of the most promising applications of DSI: the study of the surface of rapidly rotating stars with strong non-radial oscillations (Vakili 1990).
High angular resolution differential interferometry imaging has already provided particularly important new information on the atmospheric structure, wind and non-radial pulsations in extended envelopes of Be stars. Vakili et al. (1994) discussed the optical resolution of Be star envelopes in the context of data from the Grand Interféromètre à 2 Télescopes (GI2T) on Plateau de Calern (Mourard et al. 1994).
In recent years, one of the most studied stars with long
baseline interferometry has been the
Be star
Cassiopeiae.
The H
emitting region was resolved
for the first time
by Thom et al. (1986), using
optical interferometric measurements from
the Interféromètre à 2 Télescopes (I2T),
while
details in the rotating envelope of the star
have been resolved by Mourard et al. (1989).
The model presented by Stee et al. (1995), based on
spectroscopic and interferometric data collected with the GI2T,
provided the detailed physics and geometry of the star's envelope,
constraining both the density
and velocity relationships present in the equatorial plane.
Stee et al. (1998)
concluded that the size of
the emitting region (as observed
in He I
Å, continuum
Å, continuum
Å,
H
and H
)
increases from 2.3 to 17 stellar radii.
Using differential interferometry observations,
Sanchez et al. (1997)
reported the non-axisymmetric
envelope of
Cas.
Berio et al. (1999)
revealed
azimuthally asymmetric variations
of the H
profile due to a prograde one-armed
oscillation precessing in the equatorial disk of the star.
A few other stars have been observed
using spectrally resolved interferometry:
Harmanec et al. (1996) investigated jet-like structures in
the Be star
Lyrae from an extensive collection of interferometric,
spectroscopic and photometric observations.
Using the high spatial resolution provided by the GI2T, Vakili et al. (1997)
detected subtle structures in the wind of P Cygni by
analyzing spectrally resolved fringes in
and He I
Å.
Vakili et al. (1998)
reported the first interferometric detection of
a prograde one-armed oscillation in the
equatorial disk of
Tauri.
Let us consider a
star rotating with projected rotational velocity
,
observed in a spectral line
centered at
.
The intensity in the line
is related to the normalized spectrum
,
as it would be observed in the spatially resolved nonrotating
star at a point M(s,p), in the stellar atmosphere by the relation:
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Figure 1:
Connection between stellar and observer's coordinate systems.
The position of a point M on the stellar surface is determined by its
longitude L and colatitude |
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Dividing both the numerator and denominator of the Eqs. (2)
and (3) by the continuum flux
and substituting Eqs. (4) and (6), with
one obtains (using Eq. (8))
In order to illustrate the application of the preceeding basic equations,
we consider the complex brightness
distribution on the surface of a non-radially pulsating star. The non-radial pulsator model describes
the surface intensity distribution and velocity field in terms of the associated
Legendre functions
and time t as:
Figure 2 displays the stellar image
corresponding to the surface intensity
perturbation due to the non-radial pulsation m=4, l=5 mode
in the stationary reference frame.
In our example, the artificial star has a rotation axis tilted
by
to the line of sight and rotates with a projected equatorial
velocity
of 150 kms-1.
In a rapidly rotating star the pulsation velocity field acts
as a small perturbation to the dominant rotational velocity field.
This perturbation
is mapped onto a wavelength corresponding to the
rotationally induced Doppler shift.
Using Eqs. (8), (13) and (14) we calculated
the profiles of spectrum normalized flux
,
shifts orthogonal to the rotational axis
and parallel to the rotation
,
corresponding to the surface intensity
distribution
as shown in Fig. 2.
The synthetic intensity spectra and photocenter shifts are calculated using
the He I
Å intrinsic profile corresponding to a
typical OB star, with Hubeny & Lanz's (1995) spectral synthesis.
The oscillation amplitude
was set to reproduce the
strength of bumps (
1%) observed across this line in some Be stars
(e.g. Jankov et al. 2000), and
plots associated with the rotational phase
are presented on top of
Figs. 3,
4 and 5.
The synthetic data set is then computed, consisting of normalized flux
and photocenter shift profiles
evenly spread throughout the rotational cycle.
Artificial zero-average Gaussian noise (
),
is added to produce the dynamic residual spectrum
(the immaculate star line profiles are subtracted from perturbed star line profiles)
of normalized intensity, orthogonal and parallel photocenter shifts as shown in bottom of
Figs. 3, 4 and 5 respectively.
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Figure 2:
Stellar surface brightness perturbation due to
the non-radial pulsation m=4, l=5 mode on a star
tilted at
|
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Figure 3:
Synthetic normalized flux in the He I spectral line.
Top: the spectrum calculated for |
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Figure 4: Same as in Fig. 3, but for photocenter shifts orthogonal to rotation. |
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Figure 5: Same as in Fig. 3, but for photocenter shifts parallel to rotation. The shifts corresponding to the homogeneous star are equal to zero across the entire profile. |
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Let us consider the stellar surface divided by
meridians
and
parallels. Let the
meridians and
parallels determine
the image resolution pixels. We number the resolution pixels
from 1 to J, each pixel representing a part of the stellar surface with constant intensity Ij where
With regard to this discretization, we define
the spectrum of the normalized flux (Eq. (8))
measured in N discrete wavelengths across the spectral line:
The profile Hn-r,k describes the dependence
of the intensity of the local spectrum as a function of wavelength
(index r corresponding to the strip
)
and of position on the stellar surface
(index k corresponding to the projection
pixel inside the resolution element j).
The profiles
can be obtained from observations
of non-rotating template stars (Jankov & Foing 1992); otherwise they can
be calculated using spectral synthesis, but in that case they should be convolved
with the instrumental function. This function is independent of M,
in contrast
with the broadening induced by stellar rotation in conjuction with finite exposure time.
The latter broadening depends on
the position at the stellar surface M and should be
convolved with the local profile
in each resolution pixel j.
The quantity Ark is defined by the Eq. (7),
and the domain of integration associated with the equal radial
velocity strip r is introduced by:
Similarly we can deduce from Eqs. (13) and (14) that
The problem of non-linearity due to the variable continuum level (q)C has been
explicitly treated by Jankov & Foing (1992). Simultaneous photometry
can be used to measure (q)C, but if it is not available, the
transformation matrices
(q)SNJ,
(q)ONJ and
(q)PNJ should be replaced by matrices
(q)SNJ - (q)VNJ,
(q)ONJ - (q)YNJ,
(q)PNJ -
(q)ZNJ,
with the components:
,
and
.
In that case the left-hand side of the equations describing
the image-data transformation
should be set to zero.
Nevertheless, the image-data transformation remains
non-linear when the local line profile dependence on temperature is taken into
account. In that case the transformation matrix depends on XJ and should be
recalculated in each iteration, with respect to the temperature distribution
over the stellar surface from the previous iteration.
The vectors
(q)RN,
,
and
,
have the components Rn,
,
,
representing the measured intensity in the nth position of the detector pixel
for the observed frame q.
In order to obtain the image-data transformation in the form
,
with Q observations consisting of
normalized flux spectra:
Here we consider the case when
the quantities
and
can be related to the observables Es and Ep through Eq. (12).
This is likely to be met in practice for measurements obtained with multi-baseline
interferometers as well as for single aperture speckle
differential interferometry where the source intensity distribution
can projected on different directions (e.g. Lagarde 1994).
In principle, an image can be reconstructed using only the stellar flux
spectra, or any of the photocenter shift projections.
For example, for the photocenter projection orthogonal to rotation,
the corresponding data vector YI and the projection
matrix RIJ have
components and the image-data transformation can be written in the form
of matrix product
:
We have applied our indirect imaging code
to reconstruct the input stellar image using 30 spectra equally spaced in time.
These spectra have been extracted from
the dynamic residual spectrum of photocenter shifts orthogonal to rotation
as presented in Fig. 4, with a wavelength step corresponding
to spectral resolution
.
Complete sampling of the stellar surface corresponding to this spectral resolution
requires our relatively large number of spectra. Detailed discussion of the
appropriate observing strategy,
in order to obtain optimal image resolution, is given by Jankov & Foing (1992).
However, the maps reconstructed with half of this number have approximately
the same quality of reconstruction but lower image resolution.
Note that in the limit, when spectral resolution and
number of spectra approaches infinity (as presented in Figs. 3,
4 and 5),
and in the absence of noise, the dynamic difference spectrum
represents the projection from image space into a data space.
In practice, the dynamic difference spectrum, being
an approximation of the projection from the image space into a data
space, can be used as an input to perform the deprojection, but the image
reconstruction procedure should be regularized.
The reconstructed image shown in Fig. 6 (top), as well as all reconstructions throughout this paper, has been obtained using
Maximum Entropy regularization, where the solution is chosen by minimizing:
Similar image-data transformations can be formulated for the photocenter projection parallel to rotation, for which the Maximum Entropy reconstruction is shown in Fig. 6 (bottom) and for the normalized flux spectra, for which the reconstruction is shown in Fig. 7 (top).
The simulations presented here indicate that stellar surface imaging
is feasible not only from flux spectra but also from any component of photocenter
shift, but with different reliability of latitude information.
In order to achieve better image reconstructions, the image data
transformation can be defined to incorporate both photocenter projections or
flux spectra and photocenter projection parallel to rotation.
The corresponding data vector YI and the projection
matrix RIJ have
components and,
for the later case, the image-data transformation can be written in the form
where
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Figure 6:
Maximum Entropy reconstructions from two orthogonal photocenter shift spectra.
Only 30 equidistantly spaced spectra from Figs. 4 and 5
were used as input, with a wavelength step corresponding
to a spectral resolution of
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Figure 7:
Maximum Entropy reconstructions from normalized flux spectra alone, and
from flux spectra together with photocenter shifts parallel to rotation.
The sampling of input dynamic spectra (Figs. 3 and 5)
was identical to that of the reconstructions in Fig. 6.
Top: Maximum Entropy reconstruction from flux spectra
|
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A map recovered from this reconstruction should be compared to the original one (Fig. 2) as well as to the maps obtained using single photocenter projections (Fig. 6) or spectra alone (Fig. 7, top). One can notice a significant improvement with respect to previous reconstructions. In particular, the recovery of information about the distribution in latitude is improved.
To illustrate the capabilities of the technique
under more challenging conditions we consider another
test case, that of a single-baseline interferometer for which
only one component
(say Es) can be measured with the required spatial
resolution.
In that case the dispersed interference pattern contains only the information
in the direction of axis s representing the projection
of the interferometer baseline onto the sky.
In order to calculate the input moments
,
we used the
dynamic residual spectrum of a corresponding photocenter shift
,
over one rotational cycle of the star
displayed in Fig. 2.
This dynamic spectrum cannot be visually distinguished from the one presented
in Fig. 4, because the residual component of
is
much smaller than
.
The corresponding image-data transformation can be obtained using
Eqs. (12) and (19).
For example, using only the photocenter shift measurements
in the direction of the axis s,
the image-data transformation can be written in the form
The derived image-data transformation (Eq. (21)) has been employed to
reconstruct the input image from the calculated spectra
.
In order to show clearly that the reconstruction is not due to
the super-synthesis effect
(observing the source at different hour angles so that the
brightness distribution is projected onto the baseline with
different orientations), we assumed the angle
to be constant.
The resulting reconstruction (Fig. 8 top) shows that reasonably good
image reconstructions can be obtained for the case of single baseline
interferometric measurements, even under such conditions.
Of course, the visibility data taken throughout
a night represent more information and better reconstructions
are expected allowing
to vary.
A number of parameters enter the image-data transformation in Doppler
Imaging. The uncertainty in classical ones, such as inclination, projected rotational velocity,
limb darkening law etc. have been discussed in details in literature
(e.g. Vogt et al. 1987).
Note that the stellar inclination is traditionally the most uncertain value, but it
can be determined by using IDI observations. High resolution spectroscopy provides
the projected rotational velocities
,
while interferometry (together with precise parallaxes
from Hipparcos) provides the absolute stellar radii which give access (supposing
the stellar rotational frequency to be known by time-series analysis) to the
rotational velocity
.
In order to estimate the influence of the uncertainty
of the new parameter
,
the same
time series of
have been used again to perform the reconstruction, but with
error in the position
angle of the stellar rotation axis entering the image-data
transformation (Eq. (21)). The reconstructed image is presented
in Fig. 8 (bottom).
Comparison of two maps
shows that the corresponding errors in
have not
affected significantly the global structure of the image, but only the
contrast of reconstructed structures.
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Figure 8:
Maximum Entropy reconstructions from photocenter shifts measured along a single
baseline direction. The reconstructions were performed
using the image data transformation (Eq. (21)).
Top: Using the correct value for the angle
|
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Previous examples show clearly that the interferometric constraint makes
the mapping of stellar surfaces much
more reliable and informative than Doppler imaging alone.
For the interpretation of maps of stellar surfaces obtained from intensity spectra
it is important to recognize basic limitations of the technique.
Particularly striking is the loss of contrast of features below the equator.
For lower signal-to-noise ratios the reconstructions from stellar flux spectra alone show
the loss of such structures (Fig. 9 top).
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Figure 9:
Same as in Fig. 7, but for the spectra affected
by noise
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This degradation of restored maps is much less present in the reconstructions performed using the moments parallel to rotation in conjunction with normalized flux spectra or moments orthogonal to rotation (Fig. 9 bottom). The corresponding image reconstructions demonstrate that the features in the hemisphere in which the rotational pole is hidden are much better reproduced. When using the moments parallel to rotation, the corresponding stellar regions are reinforced by weighting with z-coordinate (as can be seen from Eqs. (14) and (16)), and consequently better reproduced in the reconstructed map.
The particularly challenging case is that of
a star with
,
for which the spectral inversions
are not unique.
In both cases
(normalized flux
and moment orthogonal to rotation
),
when
the entries of the matrix RIJ do not contain the term
(Eqs. (5),
(7), (15),
(18), (19)),
and being dependent only
on
,
produce the situation where the latitude sign
is undetermined.
To illustrate this situation we constructed an artificial star
non-radially pulsating in m=4, l=5 mode, and using
,
we computed synthetic dynamic spectra (Fig. 11)
as has been done for the
previous numerical experiments.
Comparing the input image (Fig. 10) and
the reconstructed map (Fig. 12 top), it is obvious that
the inversion from spectra alone fails to reproduce the correct image.
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Figure 10:
Stellar surface brightness perturbation due to
the non-radial pulsation m=4, l=5 mode on a star
tilted at
|
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Figure 11:
Dynamic spectrum of residuals
(evenly spread throughout the rotational cycle) for a star tilted at
|
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In fact, the reconstructed mirror symmetry with respect
to stellar equator is consistent with zero first-order moments parallel to
rotation
.
But the corresponding moments in that case are about
one order of magnitude higher than that presented in Fig. 5.
Introducing this constraint in the reconstruction, the entries of the matrix RIJ contain also the term
in Eqs. (16), (19) and
in that case the latitude sign is determined even for
.
This is illustrated in Fig. 12 (bottom) where the reconstruction
is dramatically improved.
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Figure 12: Top: Maximum Entropy reconstruction from normalized flux spectra. One notices a characteristic mirroring due to the north-south ambiguity. Bottom: Maximum Entropy reconstruction from photocenter shifts parallel to rotation. The north-south ambiguity is removed. |
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The high signal-to-noise ratios (
)
considered throughout
this paper have been used in order to show the performances of the method
with respect to data quality from the instruments that will operate in the
near future (VLTI).
But our examples of image reconstruction from data with lower
signal-to noise ratio (
)
show clearly
that the technique can be successfully applied even in that case, providing the
information that is not accessible from spectroscopy alone
(Figs. 9 and 12).
The requirement for a high signal-to-noise ratio could seem somehow unrealistic at present (particularly concerning the photocenter shift measurements), but observational results approaching this limit have already been obtained with the present configuration of the GI2T, using a single spectral line (Vakili et al. 1997). With the simultaneous use of several spectral lines and the least-square deconvolution (Donati et al. 1997), such signal-to-noise ratios could be attained from present instruments modified in order to obtain wide spectral regions (échelle spectrograph) and adaptive optics (Vèrinaud 2000).
In order to become a routinely usable technique, IDI needs to be compared to images of a number of well-known stars for which Doppler-Imaging or Zeeman-Doppler-Imaging techniques have already produced reliable maps. IDI, as well as classical Doppler Imaging, can be applied only to the structures which do not change appreciably during the time needed to cover one rotational cycle of the star. The class of such stars is extended by using multi-site observations and this is the main advantage of existing spectrographs. However, with the advent of future interferometric arrays the multi-site strategy should become available to IDI observations, as well.
We have shown the imaging potential of the IDI technique, which combines time-resolved spectroscopy and long baseline interferometry. It improves dramatically the reliability and details of reconstructed stellar surface maps, providing information that cannot be otherwise obtained with each of these techniques taken alone. Success in synthesizing images obtained from this method is achieved by bringing together continuous spatial resolution in the direction of spectral dispersion, provided by Doppler shifts in a rapidly rotating star, and first order moments of brightness distribution provided by interferometric measurements of photometric barycenter shifts.
We have carried out a number of numerical experiments with realistic spectral and/or spatial resolutions expected for operating (the GI2T) or close-to-operating long baseline interferometers (the VLTI, Keck). We conclude that at the reasonable spectral resolution of a few thousands and a desired signal-to-noise ratio of less than a thousand, accurate maps of stellar non-radial pulsations can be obtained by using regularized inversion Maximum Entropy methods. Interestingly enough IDI can solve a number of intrinsically ambiguous cases of stellar configurations like an equator-on rapidly rotating/pulsating star where high resolution and signal-to-noise spectroscopy fails.
In fact, IDI is evidently applicable to other classes of stellar surface structure imaging. For instance, magnetic activity of Ap, Bp or RS CVn stars, surface temperature and/or chemical abundance inhomogeneities.
Acknowledgements
A. D. de S. Jr. acknowledges CAPES (Brazil) (contract BEX 1661/98-1) for financial support. EJP acknowledges support from the FAPESP (Brazil) through grant No. 99/02506 and from the CNRS (France). We thank P. Stee and F. Wilkin for helpfull comments.