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author Kaiser, Robin
Guerin, William
Vakili, Farrokh
Berger, Jean-Philippe
Nomerotski, Andrei
Kulkov, Sergei
Svihra, Peter
Santos, Eva
Carlile, Colin
Dravins, Dainis
Funk, Stefan
Saha, Prasenjit
Walter, Roland
Fernandes, Marcelo Borges
Kim, Alex G.
Dunsky, David
Van Tilburg, Ken
Baryakhtar, Masha
Galanis, Marios
Wagoner, Robert V.
Dalal, Neal
Huang, Junwu
Gammie, Charles
Murray, Norman W.
author_facet Kaiser, Robin
Guerin, William
Vakili, Farrokh
Berger, Jean-Philippe
Nomerotski, Andrei
Kulkov, Sergei
Svihra, Peter
Santos, Eva
Carlile, Colin
Dravins, Dainis
Funk, Stefan
Saha, Prasenjit
Walter, Roland
Fernandes, Marcelo Borges
Kim, Alex G.
Dunsky, David
Van Tilburg, Ken
Baryakhtar, Masha
Galanis, Marios
Wagoner, Robert V.
Dalal, Neal
Huang, Junwu
Gammie, Charles
Murray, Norman W.
contents In this whitepaper, we outline how recent technological advances and ongoing developments open qualitatively new science opportunities in cosmology, fundamental physics, and quantum astrophysics. First, intensity interferometry can contribute to one of the most foundational observables in cosmology: the expansion rate of the Universe. Its angular resolution allows it to resolve the angular extent of extragalactic objects such as supernovae or quasars; combined with a physical scale local to the source, this yields an angular diameter distance and hence a 'Hubble diagram'. Second, the nature of dark matter can be probed via the astrometric lensing signatures of tiny dark matter halos. Third, intensity interferometry gives direct access to second-order coherence properties of astrophysical emission, opening a window onto genuinely quantum aspects of astrophysical light.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_12717
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle ESO White Paper on Intensity Interferometry: Cosmology, Fundamental Physics, Quantum Optics
Kaiser, Robin
Guerin, William
Vakili, Farrokh
Berger, Jean-Philippe
Nomerotski, Andrei
Kulkov, Sergei
Svihra, Peter
Santos, Eva
Carlile, Colin
Dravins, Dainis
Funk, Stefan
Saha, Prasenjit
Walter, Roland
Fernandes, Marcelo Borges
Kim, Alex G.
Dunsky, David
Van Tilburg, Ken
Baryakhtar, Masha
Galanis, Marios
Wagoner, Robert V.
Dalal, Neal
Huang, Junwu
Gammie, Charles
Murray, Norman W.
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
In this whitepaper, we outline how recent technological advances and ongoing developments open qualitatively new science opportunities in cosmology, fundamental physics, and quantum astrophysics. First, intensity interferometry can contribute to one of the most foundational observables in cosmology: the expansion rate of the Universe. Its angular resolution allows it to resolve the angular extent of extragalactic objects such as supernovae or quasars; combined with a physical scale local to the source, this yields an angular diameter distance and hence a 'Hubble diagram'. Second, the nature of dark matter can be probed via the astrometric lensing signatures of tiny dark matter halos. Third, intensity interferometry gives direct access to second-order coherence properties of astrophysical emission, opening a window onto genuinely quantum aspects of astrophysical light.
title ESO White Paper on Intensity Interferometry: Cosmology, Fundamental Physics, Quantum Optics
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.12717