Analytical Modeling of the White-Light Fringe

An analytical technique for extracting phase, visibility, and amplitude information as needed for interferometric astrometry for the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) is presented. This model accounts for a number of physical and instrumental effects and is valid for the general case of a bandpass filter. I was able to obtain a general solution for polychromatic phasors and to address the properties of unbiased fringe estimators in the presence of noise. For demonstration purposes I studied a rectangular bandpass filter with two different methods of optical path difference (OPD) modulation: stepping and ramping OPD modulation. A number of areas for further studies relevant to instrument design and simulations are outlined and discussed. [Optical Society of America ]