Seidr update: photonic 'black magic' for high-contrast interferometry using kernel-nulling and photonic lanterns

Abstract

Seidr is a new interferometric beam combiner within the Asgard Suite, utilizing infrastructure common to the Bifrost instrument at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer. Seidr combines hybrid mode-selective photonic lantern injection modules with a kernel-nulling photonic chip backend to enable deep H-band nulling for high-contrast studies of exoplanets, exomoons, and exo-zodiacal dust. This instrument update summarizes Seidr's current design maturity and recent simulations of the point source-to-lantern outputs. We also outline progress on our neural network-based wavefront estimation scheme, which uses the photonic lantern outputs to sense phase fluctuations, designed to feed back to Baldr's deformable mirror, and improve nuller light injection.