Aperture Synthesis Methods and Applications to Optical Astronomy
Over the years long baseline optical interferometry has slowly gained in importance and today it is a powerful tool. This timely book sets out to highlight the basic principles of long baseline optical interferometry. The book addresses the fundamentals o
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G. B¨orner, Garching, Germany A. Burkert, M¨unchen, Germany W. B. Burton, Charlottesville, VA, USA and Leiden, The Netherlands M. A. Dopita, Canberra, Australia A. Eckart, K¨oln, Germany E. K. Grebel, Heidelberg, Germany B. Leibundgut, Garching, Germany A. Maeder, Sauverny, Switzerland V. Trimble, College Park, MD, and Irvine, CA, USA
For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/848
S.K. Saha
Aperture Synthesis Methods and Applications to Optical Astronomy
ABC
Swapan Kumar Saha Indian Institute of Astrophysics Sarjapur Road 560034 Bangalore IInd Block, Koramangala India [email protected]
ISSN 0941-7834 ISBN 978-1-4419-5709-2 e-ISBN 978-1-4419-5710-8 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-5710-8 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London Library of Congress Control Number: 2010938735 c Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
To my children, Snigdha and Saurabh
Preface
The angular resolution of a single aperture (telescope) is inadequate to measure the brightness distribution across most stellar sources and many other objects of astrophysical importance. A major advance involves the transition from observations with a single telescope to a diluted array of two or more telescopes separated by more than their own sizes, mimicking a wide aperture, having a diameter about the size of the largest separation. Such a technique, called aperture synthesis, provides greater resolution of images than is possible with a single member of the array. Implementation of interferometry in optical astronomy began more than a century ago with the work of Fizeau (1868). Michelson and Pease (1921) measured successfully the angular diameter of Betelgeuse (˛ Orionis), using an interferometer based on two flat mirrors, which allowed them to measure the fringe visibility in the interference pattern formed by starlight at the detector plane. Later, Hanbury Brown and Twiss (1954) developed the intensity interferometry (see Sect. 3.3). Unlike Michelson (amplitude) interferometry, this does not rely on actual light interference. Instead, the mutual degree of coherence is obtained from the measurement of the degree of correlation between the intensity fluctuation of the signals recorded with a quadratic detector at two differen
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