Bispectral technique for reconstruction the astronomical images with an intensity interferometer

Abstract

An extension may be proposed to the intensity interferometer of Hanbury Brown and Twiss to provide the Fourier phase measurement by the use of third-order intensity correlations. It is well known that interferometric reconstruction of astronomical images can be obtained from second-order correlations only when a priory information is used about the object. The third-order intensity correlations contain information about the Fourier phase and need no such assumptions. In the ordinary way we can make measurements of the second-order intensity correlations with an intensity interferometer. We can also calculate the third-order intensity correlations from the data set of measured intensities for each distance triplet. After that we can reconstruct the Fourier phase from third-order correlations by using bipectral technique. When this is combining with the Fourier magnitude obtained from the second-order intensity correlations, we have the ultimate Fourier transform of the source brightness distribution. An inverse Fourier transform recovers the source image.

2 pages, Contribution to the SPIE meeting in Marseille on 27 June 2008