Excalibur: A Non-Parametric, Hierarchical Wavelength-Calibration Method for a Precision Spectrograph

Abstract

Excalibur is a non-parametric, hierarchical framework for precision wavelength-calibration of spectrographs. It is designed with the needs of extreme-precision radial velocity (EPRV) in mind, which require that instruments be calibrated or stabilized to better than $10^{-4}$ pixels. Instruments vary along only a few dominant degrees of freedom, especially EPRV instruments that feature highly stabilized optical systems and detectors. Excalibur takes advantage of this property by using all calibration data to construct a low-dimensional representation of all accessible calibration states for an instrument. Excalibur also takes advantage of laser frequency combs or etalons, which generate a dense set of stable calibration points. This density permits the use of a non-parametric wavelength solution that can adapt to any instrument or detector oddities better than parametric models, such as a polynomial. We demonstrate the success of this method with data from the EXtreme PREcision Spectrograph (EXPRES), which uses a laser frequency comb. When wavelengths are assigned to laser comb lines using excalibur, the RMS of the residuals is about five times lower than wavelengths assigned using polynomial fits to individual exposures. Radial-velocity measurements of HD 34411 showed a reduction in RMS scatter over a 10-month time baseline from $1.17$ to $1.05\, m\,s^{-1}$.