SOPHIE+: First results of an octagonal-section fiber for high-precision radial velocity measurements

TL;DR

SOPHIE+ enhances the SOPHIE spectrograph's radial velocity precision from 5-6 m/s to 1-2 m/s by implementing an octagonal fiber, enabling detection of low-mass exoplanets and stellar oscillations.

Contribution

The paper introduces and validates an octagonal-section fiber upgrade that significantly improves radial velocity measurement precision in a high-resolution spectrograph.

Findings

Radial velocity precision improved to 1-2 m/s

Enhanced capability to detect low-mass exoplanets

Able to identify stellar acoustic modes down to tens of cm/s

Abstract

High-precision spectrographs play a key role in exoplanet searches and Doppler asteroseismology using the radial velocity technique. The 1 m/s level of precision requires very high stability and uniformity of the illumination of the spectrograph. In fiber-fed spectrographs such as SOPHIE, the fiber-link scrambling properties are one of the main conditions for high precision. To significantly improve the radial velocity precision of the SOPHIE spectrograph, which was limited to 5-6 m/s, we implemented a piece of octagonal-section fiber in the fiber link. We present here the scientific validation of the upgrade of this instrument, demonstrating a real improvement. The upgraded instrument, renamed SOPHIE+, reaches radial velocity precision in the range of 1-2 m/s. It is now fully efficient for the detection of low-mass exoplanets down to 5-10 Earth mass and for the identification of acoustic modes down to a few tens of cm/s.