Performance and first measurements of the MAGIC Stellar Intensity Interferometer
Abstract
In recent years, a new generation of optical intensity interferometers has emerged, leveraging the existing infrastructure of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs). The MAGIC telescopes host the MAGIC-SII system (Stellar Intensity Interferometer), implemented to investigate the feasibility and potential of this technique on IACTs. After the first successful measurements in 2019, the system was upgraded and now features a real-time, dead-time-free, 4-channel, GPU-based correlator. These hardware modifications allow seamless transitions between MAGIC's standard very-high-energy gamma-ray observations and optical interferometry measurements within seconds. We establish the feasibility and potential of employing IACTs as competitive optical Intensity Interferometers with minimal hardware adjustments. The measurement of a total of 22 stellar diameters are reported, 9 corresponding to reference stars with previous comparable measurements, and 13 with no prior measurements. A prospective implementation involving telescopes from the forthcoming Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory's northern hemisphere array, such as the first prototype of its Large-Sized Telescopes, LST-1, is technically viable. This integration would significantly enhance the sensitivity of the current system and broaden the UV-plane coverage. This advancement would enable the system to achieve competitive sensitivity with the current generation of long-baseline optical interferometers over blue wavelengths.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2402.04755,
title = {Performance and first measurements of the MAGIC Stellar Intensity Interferometer},
author = {MAGIC Collaboration and S. Abe and J. Abhir and V. A. Acciari and A. Aguasca-Cabot and I. Agudo and T. Aniello and S. Ansoldi and L. A. Antonelli and A. Arbet Engels and C. Arcaro and M. Artero and K. Asano and A. Babić and A. Baquero and U. Barres de Almeida and J. A. Barrio and I. Batković and A. Bautista and J. Baxter and J. Becerra González and E. Bernardini and M. Bernardos and J. Bernete and A. Berti and J. Besenrieder and C. Bigongiari and A. Biland and O. Blanch and Ž. Bošnjak and I. Burelli and G. Busetto and A. Campoy-Ordaz and A. Carosi and R. Carosi and M. Carretero-Castrillo and G. Ceribella and Y. Chai and A. Cifuentes and E. Colombo and J. L. Contreras and J. Cortina and S. Covino and G. D'Amico and V. D'Elia and P. Da Vela and F. Dazzi and A. De Angelis and B. De Lotto and R. de Menezes and A. Del Popolo and M. Delfino and J. Delgado and C. Delgado Mendez and F. Di Pierro and L. Di Venere and D. Dominis Prester and A. Donini and D. Dorner and M. Doro and D. Elsaesser and G. Emery and J. Escudero and L. Fari na and A. Fattorini and L. Foffano and L. Font and S. Fröse and S. Fukami and Y. Fukazawa and R. J. García López and M. Garczarczyk and S. Gasparyan and M. Gaug and J. G. Giesbrecht Paiva and N. Giglietto and F. Giordano and P. Gliwny and T. Gradetzke and R. Grau and D. Green and J. G. Green and P. Günther and D. Hadasch and A. Hahn and T. Hassan and L. Heckmann and J. Herrera and D. Hrupec and M. Hütten and R. Imazawa and K. Ishio and I. Jiménez Martínez and J. Jormanainen and T. Kayanoki and D. Kerszberg and G. W. Kluge and Y. Kobayashi and P. M. Kouch and H. Kubo and J. Kushida and M. Láinez and A. Lamastra and F. Leone and E. Lindfors and L. Linhoff and S. Lombardi and F. Longo and R. López-Coto and M. López-Moya and A. López-Oramas and S. Loporchio and A. Lorini and E. Lyard and B. Machado de Oliveira Fraga and P. Majumdar and M. Makariev and G. Maneva and N. Mang and M. Manganaro and S. Mangano and K. Mannheim and M. Mariotti and M. Martínez and M. Martínez-Chicharro and A. Mas-Aguilar and D. Mazin and S. Menchiari and S. Mender and D. Miceli and T. Miener and J. M. Miranda and R. Mirzoyan and M. Molero González and E. Molina and H. A. Mondal and A. Moralejo and D. Morcuende and T. Nakamori and C. Nanci and V. Neustroev and L. Nickel and M. Nievas Rosillo and C. Nigro and L. Nikolić and K. Nilsson and K. Nishijima and T. Njoh Ekoume and K. Noda and S. Nozaki and Y. Ohtani and A. Okumura and J. Otero-Santos and S. Paiano and M. Palatiello and D. Paneque and R. Paoletti and J. M. Paredes and M. Peresano and M. Persic and M. Pihet and G. Pirola and F. Podobnik and P. G. Prada Moroni and E. Prandini and G. Principe and C. Priyadarshi and W. Rhode and M. Ribó and J. Rico and C. Righi and N. Sahakyan and T. Saito and K. Satalecka and F. G. Saturni and B. Schleicher and K. Schmidt and F. Schmuckermaier and J. L. Schubert and T. Schweizer and A. Sciaccaluga and G. Silvestri and J. Sitarek and V. Sliusar and D. Sobczynska and A. Spolon and A. Stamerra and J. Strišković and D. Strom and M. Strzys and Y. Suda and T. Surić and S. Suutarinen and H. Tajima and M. Takahashi and R. Takeishi and P. Temnikov and K. Terauchi and T. Terzić and M. Teshima S. Truzzi and A. Tutone and S. Ubach and J. van Scherpenberg and M. Vazquez Acosta and S. Ventura and I. Viale and C. F. Vigorito and V. Vitale and R. Walter and M. Will and C. Wunderlich and T. Yamamoto and G. Chon C. Díaz and M. Fiori and M. Lobo and G. Naletto and M. Polo and J. J. Rodríguez-Vázquez and P. Saha and L. Zampieri},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.04755},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
18 pages, 13 figures, submitted to MNRAS