Off-Line, Multi-Detector Intensity Interferometers II: Implications and Applications

Abstract

Intensity interferometry removes the stringent requirements on mechanical precision and atmospheric corrections that plague all amplitude interferometry techniques at the cost of severely limited sensitivity. A new idea we recently introduced, very high redundancy, alleviates this problem. It enables the relatively simple construction (~1cm mechanical precision) of a ground-based astronomical facility able to transform a two-dimensional field of point-like sources to a three-dimensional distribution of micro-arcsec resolved systems, each imaged in several optical bands. Each system will also have its high resolution residual timing, high quality (inside each band) spectra and light curve, emergent flux, effective temperature, polarization effects and perhaps some thermodynamic properties, all directly measured. All the above attributes can be measured in a single observation run of such a dedicated facility. We conclude that after three decades of abandonment optical intensity interferometry deserves another review, also as a ground-based alternative to the science goals of space interferometers.

The article has been accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (4)

• Science with the Square Kilometer Array: Motivation, Key Science Projects, Standards and Assumptions
• Off-Line, Multi-Detector Intensity Interferometers I: Theory
• Imaging and Nulling with the Space Interferometry Mission
• The Status of the STACEE Observatory

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Optical Intensity Interferometry with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Optical Intensity Interferometry with Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope Arrays
• On the intensity interferometry and the second-order correlation function $g^{(2)}$ in astrophysics
• Off-Line, Multi-Detector Intensity Interferometers I: Theory
• Intensity interferometry with more than two detectors?
• Monte-Carlo simulation of stellar intensity interferometry
• Stellar Intensity Interferometry: Prospects for sub-milliarcsecond optical imaging
• Optical Multi-Channel Intensity Interferometry - or: How To Resolve O-Stars in the Magellanic Clouds
• Intensity interferometry: Optical imaging with kilometer baselines
• Astrophysics in 2006
• The Nonlocal Pancharatnam Phase in Two-Photon Interferometry
• Photonic Astronomy and Quantum Optics
• Astro2020 White Paper State of the Profession: Intensity Interferometry
• Towards micro-arcsecond spatial resolution with Air Cherenkov Telescope arrays as optical intensity interferometers