The Very Large Telescope Interferometer Challenges for the Future

ISBN-13: 9789048163793 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 312 str.

Paulo J. V. Garcia; Andreas Glindemann; Thomas Henning

Opis

The last quarter of the 20th century witnessed the rebirth and maturing of optical interferometry and associated technologies. Major successes spanning from direct detection of stellar pulsations to imaging in the optical were achieved with test-bed systems, some of which have now evolved to facilities open to the astronomical community. The intense activity and rapid growth of this field are a clear sign that interferometry will be a major observational tool in this century both from ground and space.
The VLTI is the largest ground-based interferometric facility combining four 8.2-m telescopes with up to eight 1.8-m telescopes. This facility is the first opened on a shared risk basis in 2002, a milestone for the astronomical community. The combination of enhanced sensitivity and common user support bring into grasp a vastly unexplored astrophysical territory.
This book presents state of the art optical interferometry in astrophysics. We emphasise new VLTI users by including tutorials in optical interferometry theory and practice, and related instrumentation, as well as reviews in stellar formation and evolution, and extragalactic science.

Spis treści

Interferometry Primers.- Interferometry Theory Primer.- Optical Interferometry — A Practice Primer.- The VLTI and Other Interferometers.- The VLTI — A Status Report.- Interferometry with the Large Binocular Telescope.- VLTI Instruments and Tools.- Introducing the Near Infrared VLTI Instrument AMBER to Its Users.- Preparation of the AMBER Integrations.- MIDI — The 10 ?m Instrument on the VLTI.- Interferometric Observation at MID-Infrared Wave-Lengths with MIDI.- Genie — The Darwin Demonstrator.- PRIMA for the VLTI — Science.- The VLTI Calibrators Program: Getting Ready for High Accuracy Measurements.- 2D/3D Dust Continuum Radiative Transfer Codes to Analyze and Predict VLTI Observations.- Scientific and Technical Results from VINCI Using Coherent Estimation of Fringe Visibility.- Interferometric Science.- Probing the Close Environment of Young Stellar Objects with Interferometry.- Palomar Testbed Interferometer Observations of Young Stellar Objects.- Probing the Magnetosphere in Young Stars with AMBER/VLTI.- Unveiling the Launching Region of YSO Jets with Amber.- Imaging Stars and Their Environments with the VLTI.- Imaging with AMBER/VLTI: The Case of Microjets.- Pulsating Stars.- Cepheid Limb Darkening Models for the VLTI.- Prospects of High Angular Resolution Measurements of Binary Stars Properties with VLTI.- Interferometry: The Tool to Study Giant, Supergiant and Mira Stars.- Synthetic Radii and Visibilities for Pulsating Red Giants.- First VLTI Observations of Mira Stars.- Active Hot Star Shells.- The Wolf-Rayet Stars at High (Spatial) Resolution.- Extragalactic Astronomy with the VLTI: A New Window on the Universe.- Potential of the VLTI for Linking Stellar Frames to ICRF.- Distances on Cosmological Scales with VLTI.- The VLTI Future.- Long Range Science Perspectives for the VLTI.- Next Generation Instrumentation for the Very Large Telescope Interferometer.- Second Generation Instrumentation for the VLTI: The French VLTI Connection.- The VLTI: Challenges for the Future.

O autorze

Thomas Henning wurde 1952 in Lübeck geboren, wuchs in Hamburg und an der Ostsee auf und studierte Kommunikations-Design in Hamburg, wo er seit 1976 als Fotograf und Grafiker im Schanzenviertel lebt.