Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2010-09-29
Optical and Infrared Interferometry II (W.C.Danchi, F.Delplancke, J.K.Rajagopal, eds.), Proc. SPIE vol. 7734, 77341T (2010)
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
12 pages, 10 figures; presented at the SPIE conference "Optical and Infrared Interferometry II", San Diego, CA, USA (June 2010
Scientific paper
10.1117/12.856412
Kilometric-scale optical imagers seem feasible to realize by intensity interferometry, using telescopes primarily erected for measuring Cherenkov light induced by gamma rays. Planned arrays envision 50--100 telescopes, distributed over some 1--4 km$^2$. Although array layouts and telescope sizes will primarily be chosen for gamma-ray observations, also their interferometric performance may be optimized. Observations of stellar objects were numerically simulated for different array geometries, yielding signal-to-noise ratios for different Fourier components of the source images in the interferometric $(u,v)$-plane. Simulations were made for layouts actually proposed for future Cherenkov telescope arrays, and for subsets with only a fraction of the telescopes. All large arrays provide dense sampling of the $(u,v)$-plane due to the sheer number of telescopes, irrespective of their geographic orientation or stellar coordinates. However, for improved coverage of the $(u,v)$-plane and a wider variety of baselines (enabling better image reconstruction), an exact east-west grid should be avoided for the numerous smaller telescopes, and repetitive geometric patterns avoided for the few large ones. Sparse arrays become severely limited by a lack of short baselines, and to cover astrophysically relevant dimensions between 0.1--3 milliarcseconds in visible wavelengths, baselines between pairs of telescopes should cover the whole interval 30--2000 m.
Dravins Dainis
Jensen Hannes
LeBohec Stephan
Nunez Paul D.
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