Stellar intensity interferometry in the photon-counting regime

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Guerin, William, Hugbart, Mathilde, Tolila, Sarah, Matthews, Nolan, Lai, Olivier, Rivet, Jean-Pierre, Labeyrie, G., Kaiser, Robin
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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_version_ 1866909866619043840
author Guerin, William
Hugbart, Mathilde
Tolila, Sarah
Matthews, Nolan
Lai, Olivier
Rivet, Jean-Pierre
Labeyrie, G.
Kaiser, Robin
author_facet Guerin, William
Hugbart, Mathilde
Tolila, Sarah
Matthews, Nolan
Lai, Olivier
Rivet, Jean-Pierre
Labeyrie, G.
Kaiser, Robin
contents Stellar intensity interferometry consists in measuring the correlation of the light intensity fluctuations at two telescopes observing the same star. The amplitude of the correlation is directly related to the luminosity distribution of the star, which would be unresolved by a single telescope. This technique is based on the well-known Hanbury Brown and Twiss effect. After its discovery in the 1950s, it was used in astronomy until the 1970s, and then replaced by direct (``amplitude'') interferometry, which is much more sensitive, but also much more demanding. However, in recent years, intensity interferometry has undergone a revival. In this article, we present a summary of the state-of-the-art, and we discuss in detail the signal-to-noise ratio of intensity interferometry in the framework of photon-counting detection.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_22446
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Stellar intensity interferometry in the photon-counting regime
Guerin, William
Hugbart, Mathilde
Tolila, Sarah
Matthews, Nolan
Lai, Olivier
Rivet, Jean-Pierre
Labeyrie, G.
Kaiser, Robin
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Stellar intensity interferometry consists in measuring the correlation of the light intensity fluctuations at two telescopes observing the same star. The amplitude of the correlation is directly related to the luminosity distribution of the star, which would be unresolved by a single telescope. This technique is based on the well-known Hanbury Brown and Twiss effect. After its discovery in the 1950s, it was used in astronomy until the 1970s, and then replaced by direct (``amplitude'') interferometry, which is much more sensitive, but also much more demanding. However, in recent years, intensity interferometry has undergone a revival. In this article, we present a summary of the state-of-the-art, and we discuss in detail the signal-to-noise ratio of intensity interferometry in the framework of photon-counting detection.
title Stellar intensity interferometry in the photon-counting regime
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.22446