Towards optical intensity interferometry for high angular resolution stellar astrophysics

Most neighboring stars are still detected as point sources and are beyond the angular resolution reach of current observatories. Methods to improve our understanding of stars at high angular resolution are investigated. Air Cherenkov telescopes (ACTs), primarily used for Gamma-ray astronomy, enable us to increase our understanding of the circumstellar environment of a particular system. When used as optical intensity interferometers, future ACT arrays will allow us to detect stars as extended objects and image their surfaces at high angular resolution. Optical stellar intensity interferometry (SII) with ACT arrays, composed of nearly 100 telescopes, will provide means to measure fundamental stellar parameters and also open the possibility of model-independent imaging. A data analysis algorithm is developed and permits the reconstruction of high angular resolution images from simulated SII data. The capabilities and limitations of future ACT arrays used for high angular resolution imaging are investigated via Monte-Carlo simulations. Simple stellar objects as well as stellar surfaces with localized hot or cool regions can be accurately imaged. Finally, experimental efforts to measure intensity correlations are expounded. The functionality of analog and digital correlators is demonstrated. Intensity correlations have been measured for a simulated star emitting pseudo-thermal light, resulting in angular diameter measurements. The StarBase observatory, consisting of a pair of 3 m telescopes separated by 23 m, is described.Comment: PhD dissertatio

Digital Holography at Shot Noise Level

By a proper arrangement of a digital holography setup, that combines off-axis geometry with phase-shifting recording conditions, it is possible to reach the theoretical shot noise limit, in real-time experiments.We studied this limit, and we show that it corresponds to 1 photo-electron per pixel within the whole frame sequence that is used to reconstruct the holographic image. We also show that Monte Carlo noise synthesis onto holograms measured at high illumination levels enables accurate representation of the experimental holograms measured at very weak illumination levels. An experimental validation of these results is done

(DH) Noise and Signal scaling factors in Digital Holography in week illumination: relationship with Shot Noise

We have performed off axis heterodyne holography with very weak illumination by recording holograms of the object with and without object illumination in the same acquisition run. We have experimentally studied, how the reconstructed image signal (with illumination) and noise background (without) scale with the holographic acquisition and reconstruction parameters that are the number of frames, and the number of pixels of the reconstruction spatial filter. The first parameter is related to the frequency bandwidth of detection in time, the second one to the bandwidth in space. The signal to background ratio varies roughly like the inverse of the bandwidth in time and space. We have also compared the noise background with the theoretical shot noise background calculated by Monte Carlo simulation. The experimental and Monte Carlo noise background agree very well together

Image reconstruction from photon sparse data

We report an algorithm for reconstructing images when the average number of photons recorded per pixel is of order unity, i.e. photon-sparse data. The image optimisation algorithm minimises a cost function incorporating both a Poissonian log-likelihood term based on the deviation of the reconstructed image from the measured data and a regularization-term based upon the sum of the moduli of the second spatial derivatives of the reconstructed image pixel intensities. The balance between these two terms is set by a bootstrapping technique where the target value of the log-likelihood term is deduced from a smoothed version of the original data. When compared to the original data, the processed images exhibit lower residuals with respect to the true object. We use photon-sparse data from two different experimental systems, one system based on a single-photon, avalanche photo-diode array and the other system on a time-gated, intensified camera. However, this same processing technique could most likely be applied to any low photon-number image irrespective of how the data is collected

Long-baseline optical intensity interferometry: Laboratory demonstration of diffraction-limited imaging

A long-held vision has been to realize diffraction-limited optical aperture synthesis over kilometer baselines. This will enable imaging of stellar surfaces and their environments, and reveal interacting gas flows in binary systems. An opportunity is now opening up with the large telescope arrays primarily erected for measuring Cherenkov light in air induced by gamma rays. With suitable software, such telescopes could be electronically connected and also used for intensity interferometry. Second-order spatial coherence of light is obtained by cross correlating intensity fluctuations measured in different pairs of telescopes. With no optical links between them, the error budget is set by the electronic time resolution of a few nanoseconds. Corresponding light-travel distances are approximately one meter, making the method practically immune to atmospheric turbulence or optical imperfections, permitting both very long baselines and observing at short optical wavelengths. Previous theoretical modeling has shown that full images should be possible to retrieve from observations with such telescope arrays. This project aims at verifying diffraction-limited imaging experimentally with groups of detached and independent optical telescopes. In a large optics laboratory, artificial stars were observed by an array of small telescopes. Using high-speed photon-counting solid-state detectors, intensity fluctuations were cross-correlated over up to 180 baselines between pairs of telescopes, producing coherence maps across the interferometric Fourier-transform plane. These measurements were used to extract parameters about the simulated stars, and to reconstruct their two-dimensional images. As far as we are aware, these are the first diffraction-limited images obtained from an optical array only linked by electronic software, with no optical connections between the telescopes.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, Astronomy & Astrophysics, in press. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1407.599

Imaging Molecules from Within: Ultra-fast, {\AA}ngstr\"om Scale Structure Determination of Molecules via Photoelectron Holography using Free Electron Lasers

A new scheme based on (i) upcoming brilliant X-ray Free Electron Laser (FEL) sources, (ii) novel energy and angular dispersive, large-area electron imagers and (iii) the well-known photoelectron holography is elaborated that provides time-dependent three-dimensional structure determination of small to medium sized molecules with {\AA}ngstr\"om spatial and femtosecond time resolution. Inducing molecular dynamics, wave-packet motion, dissociation, passage through conical intersections or isomerization by a pump pulse this motion is visualized by the X-ray FEL probe pulse launching keV photoelectrons within few femtoseconds from specific and well-defined sites, deep core levels of individual atoms, inside the molecule. On their way out the photoelectrons are diffracted generating a hologram on the detector that encodes the molecular structure at the instant of photoionization, thus providing 'femtosecond snapshot images of the molecule from within'. Detailed calculations in various approximations of increasing sophistication are presented and three-dimensional retrieval of the spatial structure of the molecule with {\AA}ngstr\"om spatial resolution is demonstrated. Due to the large photo-absorption cross sections the method extends X-ray diffraction based, time-dependent structure investigations envisioned at FELs to new classes of samples that are not accessible by any other method. Among them are dilute samples in the gas phase such as aligned, oriented or conformer selected molecules, ultra-cold ensembles and/or molecular or cluster objects containing mainly light atoms that do not scatter X-rays efficiently.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figure

MEG Upgrade Proposal

We propose the continuation of the MEG experiment to search for the charged lepton flavour violating decay (cLFV) \mu \to e \gamma, based on an upgrade of the experiment, which aims for a sensitivity enhancement of one order of magnitude compared to the final MEG result, down to the $6 \times 10^{-14}$ level. The key features of this new MEG upgrade are an increased rate capability of all detectors to enable running at the intensity frontier and improved energy, angular and timing resolutions, for both the positron and photon arms of the detector. On the positron-side a new low-mass, single volume, high granularity tracker is envisaged, in combination with a new highly segmented, fast timing counter array, to track positron from a thinner stopping target. The photon-arm, with the largest liquid xenon (LXe) detector in the world, totalling 900 l, will also be improved by increasing the granularity at the incident face, by replacing the current photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) with a larger number of smaller photosensors and optimizing the photosensor layout also on the lateral faces. A new DAQ scheme involving the implementation of a new combined readout board capable of integrating the diverse functions of digitization, trigger capability and splitter functionality into one condensed unit, is also under development. We describe here the status of the MEG experiment, the scientific merits of the upgrade and the experimental methods we plan to use.Comment: A. M. Baldini and T. Mori Spokespersons. Research proposal submitted to the Paul Scherrer Institute Research Committee for Particle Physics at the Ring Cyclotron. 131 Page