Off-Line, Multi-Detector Intensity Interferometers I: Theory

Abstract

Stellar amplitude interferometry is limited by the need to have optical distances fixed and known to a fraction of the wavelength. We suggest reviving intensity interferometry, which requires hardware which is many orders of magnitude less accurate, at the cost of more limited sensitivity. We present an algorithm to use the very high redundancy of a uniform linear array to increase the sensitivity of the instrument by more than a hundredfold. When using an array of 100 elements, each almost 100m in diameter, and conservative technological improvements, we can achieve a limiting magnitude of about mb=14.4. Digitization, storage, and off-line processing of all the data will also enable interferometric image reconstruction from a single observation run, and application of various algorithms at any later time. Coronagraphy, selectively suppressing only the large scale structure of the source, can be achieved by specific aperture shapes. We conclude that after three decades of abandonment optical intensity interferometry deserves another review.