The Palomar Testbed Interferometer Calibrator Catalog

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive, empirical catalog of over 350 suitable calibrator stars for optical interferometry, derived from PTI observations and statistical analysis, enhancing calibration accuracy and sky coverage.

Contribution

It introduces a rigorous, data-driven method for identifying calibrator stars using PTI observations, Mahalanobis distance, and PCA, improving calibration reliability.

Findings

Over 350 stars identified as suitable calibrators

Achieves >95% sky coverage for PTI

Demonstrates effective detection of binary stars

Abstract

The Palomar Testbed Interferometer (PTI) archive of observations between 1998 and 2005 is examined for objects appropriate for calibration of optical long-baseline interferometer observations - stars that are predictably point-like and single. Approximately 1,400 nights of data on 1,800 objects were examined for this investigation. We compare those observations to an intensively studied object that is a suitable calibrator, HD217014, and statistically compare each candidate calibrator to that object by computing both a Mahalanobis distance and a Principal Component Analysis. Our hypothesis is that the frequency distribution of visibility data associated with calibrator stars differs from non-calibrator stars such as binary stars. Spectroscopic binaries resolved by PTI, objects known to be unsuitable for calibrator use, are similarly tested to establish detection limits of this approach. From this investigation, we find more than 350 observed stars suitable for use as calibrators (with an additional $\approx 140$ being rejected), corresponding to $\gtrsim 95%$ sky coverage for PTI. This approach is noteworthy in that it rigorously establishes calibration sources through a traceable, empirical methodology, leveraging the predictions of spectral energy distribution modeling but also verifying it with the rich body of PTI's on-sky observations.