2015MNRAS.446.2065W

The interferometers of Hanbury Brown and collaborators in the 1950s and 1960s, and their modern descendants now being developed (intensity interferometers) measure the spatial power spectrum of the source from intensity correlations at two points. The quantum optical theory of the Hanbury Brown and Twiss effect shows that more is possible, in particular the phase information can be recovered by correlating intensities at three points (bispectrum). In this paper we argue that such three-point measurements are possible for bright stars such as Sirius and Betelgeuse using off the shelf single photon counters with collecting areas of the order of 100 m2. It seems possible to map individual features on the stellar surface. Simple diameter measurements would be possible with amateur class telescopes.