SWhat changed
At Jodrell Bank Hanbury Brown and Twiss tested optical intensity interferometry on Sirius, observing a decrease in correlated intensity with projected baseline. A later participant account reproduces four observational signal-to-noise values and reports a best-fit angular diameter of 7.1 ± 0.55 milliarcseconds after a theoretical limb-darkening correction.
Scientific scope
At Jodrell Bank Hanbury Brown and Twiss tested optical intensity interferometry on Sirius, observing a decrease in correlated intensity with projected baseline. A later participant account reproduces four observational signal-to-noise values and reports a best-fit angular diameter of 7.1 ± 0.55 milliarcseconds after a theoretical limb-darkening correction. Hanbury Brown and Twiss’s 1956 paper gives the original two-author attribution. The quoted 7.1 ± 0.55 milliarcsecond diameter and four signal-to-noise values come from Hanbury Brown’s later participant account and subsequent analysis; they should not be presented as a direct reanalysis of the original observations. Atmospheric scintillation, optical bandwidth, normalization and limb-darkening assumptions affect the result.
Evidence
The linked original works support the scoped statement and contribution attribution. WRS has not independently replayed experiments or reconstructed a full mathematical proof. Hanbury Brown and Twiss’s 1956 paper gives the original two-author attribution. The quoted 7.1 ± 0.55 milliarcsecond diameter and four signal-to-noise values come from Hanbury Brown’s later participant account and subsequent analysis; they should not be presented as a direct reanalysis of the original observations. Atmospheric scintillation, optical bandwidth, normalization and limb-darkening assumptions affect the result.
Contributors
- The named authors in the research record · SCIENCE: These are the listed authors of the cited contribution sources. Paper authorship does not quantify individual effort. An incomplete list is explicitly marked; same names are not automatically merged.
- The Intensity Interferometer: Its Application to Astronomy
- A Test of a New Type of Stellar Interferometer on Sirius
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