Prospects and first optical intensity interferometry results with the MAGIC and CTAO-North LST telescopes
I. Jiménez Martínez*,
A. Cifuentes Santos,
T. Hassan,
V. Acciari,
I. Burelli,
J. Cortina,
D. della Volpe,
C. Diaz Ginzo,
F. Frias Garcia-Lago,
I. Jorge,
G. Martínez,
R. Mirzoyan,
M. Polo,
A. Raiola,
J. José Rodríguez-Vázquez,
P. Saha,
T. Schweizer,
L. Stanic on behalf of the CTAO-LST Project and the MAGIC Collaboration*: corresponding author
Pre-published on:
September 23, 2025
Published on:
—
Abstract
Along with their gamma-ray observations at very high energies (VHE;20 GeV - 100 TeV), the two 17-m MAGIC telescopes (at Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, La Palma) have also been utilized as an optical stellar intensity interferometer (SII) for the last six years. The calibration and validation of the setup, alongside the first measurement of the stellar angular diameter of 13 massive stars, were published in a performance paper in early 2024. Around the same time, the technical advancements developed for MAGIC were applied to the first Large-Sized Telescope of the northern hemisphere array of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO-North LST-1), a 23-m diameter telescope located near MAGIC. Three more LSTs should be completed beginning of 2026 and they may be equipped in the same manner as LST-1. We will focus on our first measurements with the MAGIC+LST-1 SII and our prospects for this and the MAGIC+LST1-4 SII for the study of several objects that are also known to emit in gamma rays: novae, such as the upcoming T CrB; winds from massive stars, particularly colliding-wind binaries; and Be stars which are typical companions in VHE gamma-ray binaries.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22323/1.501.0935
How to cite
Metadata are provided both in
article format (very
similar to INSPIRE)
as this helps creating very compact bibliographies which
can be beneficial to authors and readers, and in
proceeding format which
is more detailed and complete.