Galaxies (Oct 2023)
Reference Array and Design Consideration for the Next-Generation Event Horizon Telescope
- Sheperd S. Doeleman,
- John Barrett,
- Lindy Blackburn,
- Katherine L. Bouman,
- Avery E. Broderick,
- Ryan Chaves,
- Vincent L. Fish,
- Garret Fitzpatrick,
- Mark Freeman,
- Antonio Fuentes,
- José L. Gómez,
- Kari Haworth,
- Janice Houston,
- Sara Issaoun,
- Michael D. Johnson,
- Mark Kettenis,
- Laurent Loinard,
- Neil Nagar,
- Gopal Narayanan,
- Aaron Oppenheimer,
- Daniel C. M. Palumbo,
- Nimesh Patel,
- Dominic W. Pesce,
- Alexander W. Raymond,
- Freek Roelofs,
- Ranjani Srinivasan,
- Paul Tiede,
- Jonathan Weintroub,
- Maciek Wielgus
Affiliations
- Sheperd S. Doeleman
- Center for Astrophysics|Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- John Barrett
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology Haystack Observatory, 99 Millstone Road, Westford, MA 01886, USA
- Lindy Blackburn
- Center for Astrophysics|Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Katherine L. Bouman
- California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Avery E. Broderick
- Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 31 Caroline Street North, Waterloo, ON N2L 2Y5, Canada
- Ryan Chaves
- Center for Astrophysics|Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Vincent L. Fish
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology Haystack Observatory, 99 Millstone Road, Westford, MA 01886, USA
- Garret Fitzpatrick
- Center for Astrophysics|Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Mark Freeman
- Center for Astrophysics|Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Antonio Fuentes
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía-CSIC, Glorieta de la Astronomía s/n, E-18008 Granada, Spain
- José L. Gómez
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía-CSIC, Glorieta de la Astronomía s/n, E-18008 Granada, Spain
- Kari Haworth
- Center for Astrophysics|Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Janice Houston
- Center for Astrophysics|Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Sara Issaoun
- Center for Astrophysics|Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Michael D. Johnson
- Center for Astrophysics|Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Mark Kettenis
- Joint Institute for VLBI ERIC (JIVE), Oude Hoogeveensedijk 4, 7991 PD Dwingeloo, The Netherlands
- Laurent Loinard
- Instituto de Radioastronomía y Astrofísica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia 58089, Mexico
- Neil Nagar
- Astronomy Department, Universidad de Concepción, Casilla 160-C, Concepción 4030000, Chile
- Gopal Narayanan
- Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
- Aaron Oppenheimer
- Center for Astrophysics|Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Daniel C. M. Palumbo
- Center for Astrophysics|Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Nimesh Patel
- Center for Astrophysics|Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Dominic W. Pesce
- Center for Astrophysics|Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Alexander W. Raymond
- Center for Astrophysics|Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Freek Roelofs
- Center for Astrophysics|Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Ranjani Srinivasan
- Center for Astrophysics|Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Paul Tiede
- Center for Astrophysics|Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Jonathan Weintroub
- Center for Astrophysics|Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Maciek Wielgus
- Max–Planck–Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, D-53121 Bonn, Germany
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/galaxies11050107
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 11,
no. 5
p. 107
Abstract
We describe the process to design, architect, and implement a transformative enhancement of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). 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.
Keywords