HARMONI@ELT: instrument design, performance, and science capabilities
Abstract
HARMONI is the integral field spectrograph for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). Designed as the primary workhorse near-infrared spectrograph of the ELT, it will deliver spatially resolved spectroscopy at diffraction-limited angular resolution over the wavelength range 0.75 - 2.4 um, addressing science questions ranging from the characterization of exoplanet atmospheres to the internal kinematics of galaxies at the epoch of reionization. This paper presents the current status of the HARMONI project following its recent rescope, describing the new instrument architecture, its key subsystems, and the three adaptive optics modes (Single Conjugate AO (SCAO), Multi-Conjugate AO (MCAO) provided by MORFEO, and High Contrast AO (HCAO)). We present the top-level technical specifications and the expected on-sky performance in terms of Strehl ratio, PSF FWHM, sky coverage, sensitivity, and astrometric accuracy. We describe the new project organization, with a new leadership and Project Management Office (PMO), and provide an update on the project schedule and the path toward instrument delivery.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2607.26537,
title = {HARMONI@ELT: instrument design, performance, and science capabilities},
author = {B. Neichel and J. Dunlop and S. Chittick and D. Le Mignant and M. Swinbank and A. de Lorenzo-Caceres and W. Taylor and M. Tecza and B. Johnson and A. Costille and N. Bouche and A. Delsanti and T. Morris and J. Piqueras Lopez and B. Garcia and M. Mateo and A. Carlotti and Dan Dickens and Edgard Castillo Dominguez and the HARMONI Consortium},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.26537},
year = {2026}
}