Precision radial velocities in the infrared

Abstract

Over 250 extra-solar planets have been discovered to date using a variety of techniques. The majority have been discovered at optical wavelengths from the Doppler shift of F, G and K stars induced by orbiting planets. We have constructed models simulating likely planets around M dwarfs and demonstrated the ability to recover their radial velocity signals in the infrared. We have conducted experiments in the infrared with a brass-board instrument to explore real-world issues. We are thus confident that a stabilised radial velocity spectrometer with a single-shot 1 and 1.7 microns coverage at a resolution of around 70 k can achieve an instrumental radial velocity error of 0.5 m/s. This enables the efficient measurement of radial velocities for M, L and T spectral classes.