Related papers: GRAVITY: The AO-Assisted, Two-Object Beam-Combiner…
SINFONI, the SINgle Faint Object Near-infrared Investigation, is an instrument for the Very Large Telescope (VLT), which will start its operation mid 2002 and allow for the first time near infrared (NIR) integral field spectroscopy at the…
The development of high-contrast capabilities has long been recognized as one of the top priorities for the VLTI. As of today, the VLTI routinely achieves contrasts of a few 10$^{-3}$ in the near-infrared with PIONIER (H band) and GRAVITY…
We propose a novel type of composite light-matter interferometer based on a supersolid-like phase of a driven Bose-Einstein condensate coupled to a pair of degenerate counterpropagating electromagnetic modes of an optical ring cavity. The…
The direct observation of cold and temperate planets within 1 to 10 AU would be extremely valuable for uncovering their atmospheric compositions but remains a formidable challenge with current astronomical methods. Ground-based optical…
The spin of the supermassive black hole that resides at the Galactic Centre can in principle be measured by accurate measurements of the orbits of stars that are much closer to SgrA* than S2, the orbit of which recently provided the…
We report the demonstration of a sensitive absolute gravity gradiometer based on light-pulse atom interference techniques. The gradiometer consists of two absolute accelerometers operated in a differential mode. We report a differential…
We present several estimates of the rate of simultaneous detection of the merging of a binary system of neutron stars in the electromagnetic and the gravitational wave domains, assuming that they produce short GRBs. We have based our…
Our goal is to demonstrate the potential of the interferometric AMBER instrument linked with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) fringe-tracking facility FINITO to derive high-precision stellar diameters. We use commissioning…
Scaling up interferometry to 8m collectors should smooth-out the optical piston perturbations and allow a slow fringe tracker to obtain high precision correction on faint targets. In practice, the GRAVITY fringe tracker still observes high…
This paper is a response to a call for white papers solicited by Gemini Observatory and its Science and Technology Advisory Committee, to help define the science case and requirements for a new Gemini instrument, envisaged to consist of a…
Characterization of the dynamics of massive star systems and the astrophysical properties of the interacting components are a prerequisite for understanding their formation and evolution. Optical interferometry at milliarcsecond resolution…
Recently several studies have pointed out that gravitational-wave detectors are sensitive to ultralight vector dark matter and can improve the current best constraints given by the Equivalence Principle tests. While a gravitational-wave…
We propose an atom interferometer gravitational wave detector in low Earth orbit (AGIS-LEO). Gravitational waves can be observed by comparing a pair of atom interferometers separated over a ~30 km baseline. In the proposed configuration,…
We present an estimate of the performance that will be achieved during on orbit operations of the JWST Mid Infrared Instrument, MIRI. The efficiency of the main imager and spectrometer systems in detecting photons from an astronomical…
RISTRETTO is a visible high-resolution spectrograph fed by an extreme adaptive optics (XAO) system, to be proposed as a visitor instrument on ESO VLT. The main science goal of RISTRETTO is the detection and atmospheric characterization of…
ASTROD (Astrodynamical Space Test of Relativity using Optical Devices) is a mission concept with three spacecraft -- one near L1/L2 point, one with an inner solar orbit and one with an outer solar orbit, ranging coherently with one another…
Atom interferometers employing optical cavities to enhance the beam splitter pulses promise significant advances in science and technology, notably for future gravitational wave detectors. Long cavities, on the scale of hundreds of meters,…
Context:Optical interferometry is at a key development stage. ESO's VLTI has established a stable, robust infrastructure for long-baseline interferometry for general astronomical observers. The present second-generation instruments offer a…
The Adaptive Optics Lucky Imager (AOLI) is a new instrument designed to combine adaptive optics (AO) and lucky imaging (LI) techniques to deliver high spatial resolution in the visible, 20 mas, from ground-based telescopes. Here we present…
The High Angular Resolution Monolithic Optical and Near-infrared Integral field spectrograph (HARMONI) is the visible and near-infrared (NIR), adaptive-optics-assisted, integral field spectrograph for ESO's Extremely Large Telescope (ELT).…