Towards micro-arcsecond spatial resolution with Air Cherenkov Telescope arrays as optical intensity interferometers

Abstract

In this poster contribution we highlight the equivalence between an Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescope (IACT) array and an Intensity Interferometer for a range of technical requirements. We touch on the differences between a Michelson and an Intensity Interferometer and give a brief overview of the current IACT arrays, their upgrades and next generation concepts (CTA, AGIS, completion 2015). The latter are foreseen to include 30-90 telescopes that will provide 400-4000 different baselines that range in length between 50m and a kilometre. Intensity interferometry with such arrays of telescopes attains 50 micro-arcseconds resolution for a limiting V magnitude of ~8.5. This technique opens the possibility of a wide range of studies, amongst others, probing the stellar surface activity and the dynamic AU scale circumstellar environment of stars in various crucial evolutionary stages. Here we discuss possibilities for using IACT arrays as optical Intensity Interferometers.

Appeared in the proceedings of "The Universe under the Microscope - Astrophysics at High Angular Resolution", Journal of Physics:Conference Series (IOP; http://www.iop.org/EJ/toc/1742-6596/131/1)

References in corpus (11)

• The Status of the H.E.S.S. Project
• The First VERITAS Telescope
• The spinning-top Be star Achernar from VLTI-VINCI
• Fringe Visibility Estimators for the Palomar Testbed Interferometer
• Why are the K dwarfs in the Pleiades so Blue?
• Optical Intensity Interferometry with Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope Arrays
• The remarkable light and colour variability of Small Magellanic Cloud Be stars
• Off-Line, Multi-Detector Intensity Interferometers I: Theory
• Off-Line, Multi-Detector Intensity Interferometers II: Implications and Applications
• Stellar Intensity Interferometry with Air Cherenkov Telescope arrays
• The potential for intensity interferometry with gamma-ray telescope arrays