The nearby eclipsing stellar system delta Velorum - IV. Differential astrometry with VLT/NACO at the 100 microarcsecond level

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that narrow-angle adaptive optics astrometry with VLT/NACO can achieve 50-100 microarcsecond precision, successfully detecting the orbital wobble of the delta Vel A binary system and confirming its orbital orientation.

Contribution

The paper provides the first demonstration of high-precision narrow-angle adaptive optics astrometry on a simple binary system, confirming orbital parameters with unprecedented accuracy.

Findings

Detected the astrometric wobble with ~50 microarcsecond precision.

Measured a displacement amplitude of ~2 milliarcseconds.

Confirmed the orbital plane orientation of delta Vel A with consistency to previous interferometry results.

Abstract

Context. delta Vel contains the brightest eclipsing binary in the southern sky (delta Vel A), and a nearby third star located ~0.6" away (delta Vel B). The proximity of delta Vel B (usable as a reference) makes it a particularly well-suited target to detect the astrometric displacement of the center of light of the eclipsing pair. Aims. We obtained NACO astrometric observations with two goals: (1) to confirm the orientation of the orbital plane of the eclipsing pair on the sky determined by interferometry (Paper III) and (2) demonstrate the capabilities of narrow-angle adaptive optics astrometry on a simple system with predictable astrometric properties. Methods. We measured the angular separation vector between the eclipsing binary delta Vel A and the visual companion delta Vel B from narrow-band images at 2.17 microns obtained with the VLT/NACO adaptive optics system. Based on these observations and our previous determination of the orbital parameters of the wide binary delta Vel A-B, we derive the apparent displacement of the center-of-light of the eclipsing pair at 11 epochs over its orbital cycle. Results. We detect the astrometric wobble of the center of light of the delta Vel A pair relatively to B with a typical measurement precision of ~50 microarcseconds per epoch, for a total amplitude of the measured displacement of ~2 milliarcseconds. Conclusions. The detected wobble is in agreement with our model presented in Paper III and confirms the orientation of the Aab orbital plane on the sky. The residual dispersion compared to our model is 110 microarcseconds rms, that we tentatively attribute to photometric variability of the fast rotating A-type components Aa and/or Ab in the BrGamma line. Based on these results, we conclude that in favorable conditions (bright source with only two resolved components, small angular separation), narrow-angle astrometry with adaptive optics on an 8-meter class telescope can reach an accuracy of 50 to 100 microarcseconds.