CFHT UM2025 - Presentation Details
Abstract Details
Title: OHANA NUI: Intensity Correlations on a White Dwarf
Presenter: Olivier Lai
Abstract:
Between 1999 and 2012, a collaboration of Observatories strived to connect telescopes at the summit of Maunakea with single mode optical fibres into a kilometric baseline interferometer to operate at near infrared wavelengths; it was the OHANA project, (Optical Hawaiian Array for Nanoradian Astronomy, with all the telescopes operating as a family). Unfortunately, luck was not with us and adverse weather conditions prevented us from performing astronomical observations of YSOs and AGNs at Keck until 2009. The project came to an end in 2012. We propose to revive the idea of interferometric connection of the Maunakea telescopes, but this time in the visible and using quantum optics and the technique of intensity interferometry. Technological progress driven by quantum optics and telecommunications has led to the development of new components which have allowed to extend the sensitivity of the technique by orders of magnitude. We have developed a collaboration between quantum optics physicist and astronomers at Université Côte d'Azur since 2016 and have demonstrated the promise of the technique using our 1m telescopes to achieve original and meaningful astrophysical measurements. One of the main advantages of the technique, besides being insensitive to atmospheric turbulence, is that it requires no physical link between the telescopes, making it ideally suited for implementation on a site such as Maunakea, with no impact on the mountain whatsoever. The longest baselines on the mountain would allow to obtain a visibility measurement in one night of integration on Sirius B, the closest known white dwarf. These exotic objects are supported by Fermi electron degeneracy, and their diameter is estimated from their luminosity; such a measurement would uniquely constrain the diameter and demonstrate quantum mechanics at work on an astrophysical size object!