A coherent revolution: interferometry and photonics for precision astrophysics.

Many domains of contemporary astrophysics drive escalating demands for measurement precision from data. Witnessing intrinsically subtle phenomena, such as the faint mote of light betraying an exoplanet against the glare of its host star, often mandates breakthrough performance in several domains simultaneously. For this example, the extreme contrast between the planet and star must be delivered while probing angular scales at or beyond the diffraction limit of the largest contemporary telescopes. Accomplishing such tasks requires an integrated approach spanning the entire workflow from instrument to data products, bringing innovative hardware and principled approaches to optimisation and data analysis. Founded in novel interferometric and photonic technologies, a handful of new instruments led from my group (at Subaru, Keck, LBT, VLT and CHARA) push to overcome the observational limits. The commissioning of my AMI-interferometer mode flying aboard JWST/NIRISS instrument has provided a springboard for interferometric technologies onto space platforms. A next step in bringing precision interferometric measurement to space, my team are now in the final construction phase of the TOLIMAN mission, which will fly a 12.5cm aperture space telescope (Australia's largest to date). TOLIMAN targets an audacious outcome in planetary astrophysics: an exhaustive search for temperate-orbit rocky planets in Alpha Cen, our nearest neighbour star system, by performing narrow-angle astrometric monitoring of the binary at extreme precision. While spanning a diverse range of instruments, this talk will distil the key thread of principled ideas that enable them.

Professor Peter Tuthill

Professor Peter Tuthill is an expert in astrophysical imaging; studying stars and their immediate environments with unprecedented resolution. After obtaining undergraduate degrees in physics at University of Queensland and the Australian National University, Peter moved to Cambridge University graduating with a PhD in 1995. For the next 5 years, he worked as a Research Astronomer at the University of California in Berkeley in a research group led by Nobel Laureate, Professor Charles Townes. Peter returned to Australia with the millenium, holding a number of Australian Research Council fellowships up to his present appointment as a Future Fellow. Peter works at the Sydney Institute for Astronomy - one of the largest astrophysics groups in the country - serving as director from 2010-2015.