# A new wavelength calibration for echelle spectrographs using Fabry-Perot etalons

## TL;DR

This paper presents an improved wavelength calibration method for echelle spectrographs by combining thorium-argon lamp references with Fabry-Pérot etalon data, enhancing precision for high-accuracy spectroscopic measurements.

## Contribution

The authors develop a combined calibration technique that integrates thorium-argon and Fabry-Pérot spectral data, improving wavelength accuracy and precision in spectrographs like HARPS.

## Key findings

- Significantly improved calibration accuracy over thorium-only methods.
- Validated the combined solution against laser-frequency comb measurements.
- Implementation in HARPS and future ESPRESSO pipelines.

## Abstract

The study of Earth-mass extrasolar planets via the radial-velocity technique and the measurement of the potential cosmological variability of fundamental constants call for very-high-precision spectroscopy at the level of $\updelta\lambda/\lambda<10^{-9}$. Wavelength accuracy is obtained by providing two fundamental ingredients: 1) an absolute and information-rich wavelength source and 2) the ability of the spectrograph and its data reduction of transferring the reference scale (wavelengths) to a measurement scale (detector pixels) in a repeatable manner. The goal of this work is to improve the wavelength calibration accuracy of the HARPS spectrograph by combining the absolute spectral reference provided by the emission lines of a thorium-argon hollow-cathode lamp (HCL) with the spectrally rich and precise spectral information of a Fabry-P\'erot-based calibration source. On the basis of calibration frames acquired each night since the Fabry-P\'erot etalon was installed on HARPS in 2011, we construct a combined wavelength solution which fits simultaneously the thorium emission lines and the Fabry-P\'erot lines. The combined fit is anchored to the absolute thorium wavelengths, which provide the `zero-point' of the spectrograph, while the Fabry-P\'erot lines are used to improve the (spectrally) local precision. The obtained wavelength solution is verified for auto-consistency and tested against a solution obtained using the HARPS Laser-Frequency Comb (LFC). The combined thorium+Fabry-P\'erot wavelength solution shows significantly better performances compared to the thorium-only calibration. The presented techniques will therefore be used in the new HARPS and HARPS-N pipeline, and will be exported to the ESPRESSO spectrograph.