Cancellation of star light generated by a nearby star-planet system upon detection with a rotationally-shearing interferometer

摘要

We derive the analytical expression for the star-planet incidance detected with a (variable angle) rotationally-shearing interferometer, with the absence of star-related quantities. The rotationally-shearing interferometer detects only the tilted wave front incident from a planet. The partial polarization of two rotated beams diminishes the signal amplitude by a factor proportional to the cosine-square of the shearing angle. The polarization considerations favor the small-angle implementation of the rotationally-shearing interferometer.