Speaker
Description
I will present the current status of the work done by our "Intensity Interferometry at Calern" (I2C) consortium in Nice (France) on the revival of intensity interferometry with optical telescopes.
I will first briefly summarized what we have done in the last years: We have demonstrated intensity correlations using stellar light for the first time in the photon-counting regime, using single-photon avalanche photodiodes and 1m-class telescopes at Calern Observatory. We have then dedicated some effort to demonstrate the simplicity and portability of our instrument by adapting and using it with success on different telescopes worldwide, including a 1-m portable telescope at Calern, the Auxiliary Telescopes at ESO-Paranal Observatory, and the 4-m SOAR telescope. Besides these technical demonstrations, we have also performed a few measurements of astrophysical interest, in particular on the H$\alpha$ emission line of P Cygni.
Then I will present our main current project, which is to develop a second-generation instrument working with 16 wavelength channels around 420 nm using large-area single-photon detectors. Our main science goal is the resolution of Sirius B, the brightest white dwarf ($m_B = 8.4$), using two large telescopes separated by more than 600 m in Hawaii. I will present some preliminary designs and technical tests.
