VLTI EXPERTISE CENTRES NETWORKOPTICON WP11

PAULO J.V. GARCIA – PORTO UNIVERSITY

OPTICON BOARD MEET ING,6 TH NOVEMBER 2018

BACKGROUND ON OPTICAL-INFRARED INTERFEROMETRY

Combines the light from telescopes separated by a baseline B, obtaining imaging information at scales λ/B and astrometry at ~10 micro-arcsecond scales.

Typically a factor of 15 above 8 m class telescopes equipped with AO and still an unique discovery space in the ELT era.

Comparatively short wavelength (x10-3) with respect to radio/sub-millimetre translates in significant technical challenges and youth of the technique (first common user facility was the ESO/VLTI circa 2001).

Huge investment of ESO on the VLTI as result of scientific prioritization exercise

Significant increase in productivity by combining 4 telescopes in H, K, L, M, N with spectral resolution

Significant increase in the sensitivity of the array

fringe tracking + adaptive optics (UTs+ATs)

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THE ESO/VLTI IS DELIVERING

Imaging the dust sublimation front of a circumbinary disk with PIONIER 1.5th generation instrument (Hillen+2016)

Vigorous atmospheric motion in the red supergiant star Antaresspectro-imaged with AMBER 1st

generation instrument (Ohnaka+ 2017)

Large granulation cells on the surface of the giant star star imaged with PIONIER 1.5th

generation instrument (Paladini+2017)

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THE ESO/VLTI IS DELIVERING

GRAVITY 2nd generation instrument (K-band + fringe tracking + AO@UTs)

GRAVITY+SINFONI detection of gravitational redshift (GRAVITY Coll.+2018a)

GRAVITY detection of matter orbiting at 7 RS during a flare of SgrA* (GRAVITY Coll. +2018b)

GRAVITY spectro-interferometric resolution of the BLR of a quasar (GRAVITY Coll. +2018c)

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SUCCESS WAS ENABLED BY OPTICON1.5th and 2nd Generation instrumentation for the VLTI was launched by OPTICON impulse back in OPTICON-FP6.

PIONIER detector (RAPID) was developed in OPTICON FP7-I.

PIONIER and GRAVITY are truly an astrophotonicsinstruments, with fiber fed guided optics beam combiners.

The GRAVITY (and in the future MATISSE) fringe tracker is an astrophotonics system with fibre control (& stretching) further to beam combiner.

Fringe tracking in OPTICON-FP7-I paved the way to the facility fringe tracker.

Image reconstruction in OPTICON-FP7-2 enabled access to data analysis facilities allowing non-experts to exploit (cf. some of previous results).

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WP11| ESTABLISH A NETWORK OF VLTI EXPERTISE CENTRES

Scientific capacity growth with PIONIER 1.5th generation instrument

Transformational science with GRAVITY 2nd generation instrument

MATISSE 2nd generation instrument being commissioned and offered for P103

4+ interferometry related ERC grants in the last 3 years

Builds on and expands successful OPTICON Fizeau programme, VLTI schools, VLTI Community Days and JMMC example.

Close coordination with ESO.

Enhanced community-building work by the European Interferometry Initiative (http://www.european-interferometry.eu) involving 15 countries, ESA and ESO.

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WP11 OBJECTIVES

a) Coordinate the creation of an European-wide network of VLTI Expertise Centres;

b) Organize schools that will train the VLTI users;

c) Support observing proposal preparation and data reduction;

d) Co-organize with ESO the VLTI community days and the European Interferometry Initiative meetings;

e) Focus the highly successful Fizeau staff exchange grant scheme towards young researchers and VLTI outreach in communities without much optical-infrared interferometry know-how;

f) Exchange experience and coordinate with the radio-mm interferometry community;

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WP11 SUB-WORK

PACKAGES

WP11.1. Coordination Day-to-day network activities including reporting. Monthly teleconferences of EII Bureau.

WP11.2 VLTI Expertise Centres Network Backbone of dissemination activities to new VLTI users. Network includes the three partners from this

networking activity (JMMC/France, Porto/Portugal, Exeter/UK), as well as the three interferometry JRA (WP8) lead partners (Nice/France, Liège/Belgium, Heidelberg/Germany).

WP11.3 Fizeau Programme Staff Exchange

WP11.4 VLTI Schools

WP11.5 VLTI Community days and European Interferometric Initiative meetings

Transparent real-time reporting at http://www.european-interferometry.eu

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WP11 DELIVERABLES9

• This deliverable was moved to M19 and successfully delivered.

D.11.1 VLTI School in Porto report [M12]

• Successfully delivered.• Individuals responsible for support identified and active.• Supported by ESO Users Committee Poll 2018.

D.11.2 VLTI Expertise Centres Network Website Report [M12]

• Deliverable will be moved to 2020• Preparations for the school started.

D.11.3 VLTI School in Nice report [M36]

VLTI EXPERTISE CENTRES NETWORK

Centres are the backbone of dissemination activities to new VLTI users Organisation of VLTI Schools

Co-organisation with ESO the VLTI community days

End-points of the Fizeau staff exchange programme.

Follow at a smaller scale the successful experience of the ALMA Regional Centres Researchers travel to the expertise centres to reduce their data.

Centres will be the visible first contact point for astronomers interested in using VLTI.

The centres don’t have national/regional scope, but are a network serving any user.

Current VLTI Expertise Centres are partners of WP8 and WP11.

Details@ http://www.european-interferometry.eu/vlti-expertise-centres-network

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FIZEAU PROGRAMME

Selection committee members from non-funded (WP8/11) OPTICON countries Josef Hron (AU, Chair), Péter Ábrahám (HU,

deputy), Jose C. Guirado (ES), Alessandro Marconi (IT), Sofia Ramstedt (SE). Full autonomy from project management

Calls issued: 2017A, 2017B, 2018A and 2018A-VLTI School, 2018B

Total funding for 29 exchanges was awarded.

Widely announced, including via ESO.

Details @ http://www.european-interferometry.eu/fizeau-program/funding-results

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VLTI SCHOOL, PORTUGAL, 07-2018

Focused on practical activities and final telescope proposal.

The school had 37 students, 28 of which were MSc or PhD students, 38% female.

The students originated from 15 different countries Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Denmark,

France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland, The Netherlands, United Kingdom and ESO.

Full funding (flight, lodging, subsistence) awarded to most students, including Fizeau Programme complement.

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SCHOOL IMPACT ON VLTI – P103

ESO P103 call for proposals deadline was 2.5 month after school end.

6 students appear in VLTI P103 proposals and never appeared before.

8 students appeared on proposals before P103, 6 of which also appear in P103.

One third of VLTI school students are on P103 proposals

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PROBLEM: LOW FEMALE REPRESENTATION IN SCHOOL LECTURERS

Problem is general of the field and affects conferences also.

Solution: create a list of female interferometrists.

Rachael Roettenbacher (Yale) and Claudia Paladini (ESO) coordinating the list.

List will be made available, in November 2018, future use at EII website for.

We anticipate use in next VLTI School in 2020 and EWASS 2019 at Lyon.

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VLTI COMMUNITY DAYS

March, 2017, 56 participants.

The days presenteda) current status of the VLTI; b) presentation of prospective for the infrastructure by ESO and the community; c) discussion on ideas and science cases for future instruments

Face-to-face meeting of the Science Council European Interferometric Initiativea) a report and discussion on the OPTICON-FP7 activities;b) the foreseen activities for H2020; c) perspective activities for the VLTI infrastructure and others; d) internal EII organization aspects.

Following the meeting an electronic procedure for the election of the EII bureau took place. The transition took place in August 2017.

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WP11 IDEAS FOR HORIZON EUROPE

Current programme is of high impact and low cost (2.5% of OPTICON budget) Result of evolution and finetuning Focused on ESO/VLTI community development, but open to other

facilities worldwide. Highest pressure in history on VLTI was in P103!

VLTI Expertise centres as the enablers of community support towards use of infrastructure The European interferometry initiative is a coordination network

involving 15 countries The European interferometry initiative is a contact point for

Astronet, ESO and US interferometry community.

Main ingredients Fizeau exchange programme VLTI schools every two years VLTI community days Management good practices

Synergies with similar activities at Radionet.

Other ideas (e.g training in specific topics horizontal to the programme)

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