QuantEYE: The Quantum Optics Instrument for OWL

TL;DR

QuantEYE is a high time-resolution optical instrument designed for the OWL telescope to study astrophysical phenomena at microsecond and nanosecond scales, reaching the quantum-optical limit.

Contribution

It introduces a novel photon-counting instrument optimized for the OWL telescope to explore rapid astrophysical variability at unprecedented time resolutions.

Findings

Enables detection of photon-gas bubble instabilities in accretion flows

Allows study of neutron star oscillations at microsecond scales

Facilitates observation of quantum-optical photon bunching in astrophysics

Abstract

QuantEYE is designed to be the highest time-resolution instrument on ESO:s planned Overwhelmingly Large Telescope, devised to explore astrophysical variability on microsecond and nanosecond scales, down to the quantum-optical limit. Expected phenomena include instabilities of photon-gas bubbles in accretion flows, p-mode oscillations in neutron stars, and quantum-optical photon bunching in time. Precise timescales are both variable and unknown, and studies must be of photon-stream statistics, e.g., their power spectra or autocorrelations. Such functions increase with the square of the intensity, implying an enormously increased sensitivity at the largest telescopes. QuantEYE covers the optical, and its design involves an array of photon-counting avalanche-diode detectors, each viewing one segment of the OWL entrance pupil. QuantEYE will work already with a partially filled OWL main mirror, and also without [full] adaptive optics.