We describe the process to design, architect, and implement a transformative enhancement of the Event Horizon Telescope (ngEHT). This program - the next-generation Event Horizon Telescope (ngEHT) - will form a networked global array of radio dishes capable of making high-fidelity real-time movies of supermassive black holes (SMBH) and their emanating jets. This builds upon the EHT principally by deploying additional modest-diameter dishes to optimized geographic locations to enhance the current global mm/submm wavelength Very Long Baseline Interferometric (VLBI) array, which has, to date, utilized mostly pre-existing radio telescopes. The ngEHT program further focuses on observing at three frequencies simultaneously for increased sensitivity and Fourier spatial frequency coverage. Here, the concept, science goals, design considerations, station siting and instrument prototyping are discussed, and a preliminary reference array to be implemented in phases is described.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2306.08787,
title = {Reference Array and Design Consideration for the next-generation Event Horizon Telescope},
author = {Sheperd S. Doeleman and John Barrett and Lindy Blackburn and Katherine Bouman and Avery E. Broderick and Ryan Chaves and Vincent L. Fish and Garret Fitzpatrick and Antonio Fuentes and Mark Freeman and José L. Gómez and Kari Haworth and Janice Houston and Sara Issaoun and Michael D. Johnson and Mark Kettenis and Laurent Loinard and Neil Nagar and Gopal Narayanan and Aaron Oppenheimer and Daniel C. M. Palumbo and Nimesh Patel and Dominic W. Pesce and Alexander W. Raymond and Freek Roelofs and Ranjani Srinivasan and Paul Tiede and Jonathan Weintroub and Maciek Wielgus},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2306.08787},
year = {2024}
}