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arXiv · 2301.08071

The GRAVITY+ Project: Towards All-sky, Faint-Science, High-Contrast Near-Infrared Interferometry at the VLTI

GRAVITY+ Collaboration·:·Roberto Abuter·Patricio Alarcon·Fatme Allouche·Antonio Amorim·Christophe Bailet·Helen Bedigan·Anthony Berdeu·Jean-Philippe Berger·Philippe Berio·Azzurra Bigioli·Richard Blaho·Olivier Boebion·Marie-Lena Bolzer·Henri Bonnet·Guillaume Bourdarot·Pierre Bourget·Wolfgang Brandner·Cesar Cardenas·Ralf Conzelmann·Mauro Comin·Yann Clénet·Benjamin Courtney-Barrer·Yigit Dallilar·Ric Davies·Denis Defrère·Alain Delboulbé·Françoise Delplancke-Ströbele·Roderick Dembet·Tim de Zeeuw·Antonia Drescher·Andreas Eckart·Clemence Édouard·Frank Eisenhauer·Maximilian Fabricius·Helmut Feuchtgruber·Gert Finger·Natascha M. Förster Schreiber·Eloy Fuenteseca·Enrique Garcia·Paulo Garcia·Feng Gao·Eric Gendron·Reinhard Genzel·Juan Pablo Gil·Stefan Gillessen·Tiago Gomes·Frédéric Gonté·Carole Gouvret·Patricia Guajardo·Ivan Guidolin·Sylvain Guieu·Ronald Guzmann·Wolfgang Hackenberg·Nicolas Haddad·Michael Hartl·Xavier Haubois·Frank Haußmann·Gernot Heißel·Thomas Henning·Stefan Hippler·Sebastian Hönig·Matthew Horrobin·Norbert Hubin·Estelle Jacqmart·Laurent Jocou·Andreas Kaufer·Pierre Kervella·Jean-Paul Kirchbauer·Johan Kolb·Heidi Korhonen·Laura Kreidberg·Peter Krempl·Sylvestre Lacour·Stephane Lagarde·Olivier Lai·Vincent Lapeyrère·Romain Laugier·Jean-Baptiste Le Bouquin·James Leftley·Pierre Léna·Steffan Lewis·Dieter Lutz·Yves Magnard·Felix Mang·Aurelie Marcotto·Didier Maurel·Antoine Mérand·Florentin Millour·Nikhil More·Hugo Nowack·Matthias Nowak·Sylvain Oberti·Francisco Olivares·Thomas Ott·Laurent Pallanca·Thibaut Paumard·Karine Perraut·Guy Perrin
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Abstract

The GRAVITY instrument has been revolutionary for near-infrared interferometry by pushing sensitivity and precision to previously unknown limits. With the upgrade of GRAVITY and the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) in GRAVITY+, these limits will be pushed even further, with vastly improved sky coverage, as well as faint-science and high-contrast capabilities. This upgrade includes the implementation of wide-field off-axis fringe-tracking, new adaptive optics systems on all Unit Telescopes, and laser guide stars in an upgraded facility. GRAVITY+ will open up the sky to the measurement of black hole masses across cosmic time in hundreds of active galactic nuclei, use the faint stars in the Galactic centre to probe General Relativity, and enable the characterisation of dozens of young exoplanets to study their formation, bearing the promise of another scientific revolution to come at the VLTI.

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GRAVITY+ Collaboration, :, Roberto Abuter, Patricio Alarcon, Fatme Allouche, Antonio Amorim, Christophe Bailet, Helen Bedigan, Anthony Berdeu, Jean-Philippe Berger, Philippe Berio, Azzurra Bigioli, Richard Blaho, Olivier Boebion, Marie-Lena Bolzer, Henri Bonnet, Guillaume Bourdarot, Pierre Bourget, Wolfgang Brandner, Cesar Cardenas, Ralf Conzelmann, Mauro Comin, Yann Clénet, Benjamin Courtney-Barrer, Yigit Dallilar, Ric Davies, Denis Defrère, Alain Delboulbé, Françoise Delplancke-Ströbele, Roderick Dembet, Tim de Zeeuw, Antonia Drescher, Andreas Eckart, Clemence Édouard, Frank Eisenhauer, Maximilian Fabricius, Helmut Feuchtgruber, Gert Finger, Natascha M. Förster Schreiber, Eloy Fuenteseca, Enrique Garcia, Paulo Garcia, Feng Gao, Eric Gendron, Reinhard Genzel, Juan Pablo Gil, Stefan Gillessen, Tiago Gomes, Frédéric Gonté, Carole Gouvret, Patricia Guajardo, Ivan Guidolin, Sylvain Guieu, Ronald Guzmann, Wolfgang Hackenberg, Nicolas Haddad, Michael Hartl, Xavier Haubois, Frank Haußmann, Gernot Heißel, Thomas Henning, Stefan Hippler, Sebastian Hönig, Matthew Horrobin, Norbert Hubin, Estelle Jacqmart, Laurent Jocou, Andreas Kaufer, Pierre Kervella, Jean-Paul Kirchbauer, Johan Kolb, Heidi Korhonen, Laura Kreidberg, Peter Krempl, Sylvestre Lacour, Stephane Lagarde, Olivier Lai, Vincent Lapeyrère, Romain Laugier, Jean-Baptiste Le Bouquin, James Leftley, Pierre Léna, Steffan Lewis, Dieter Lutz, Yves Magnard, Felix Mang, Aurelie Marcotto, Didier Maurel, Antoine Mérand, Florentin Millour, Nikhil More, Hugo Nowack, Matthias Nowak, Sylvain Oberti, Francisco Olivares, Thomas Ott, Laurent Pallanca, Thibaut Paumard, Karine Perraut, Guy Perrin. 2023-01-19. The GRAVITY+ Project: Towards All-sky, Faint-Science, High-Contrast Near-Infrared Interferometry at the VLTI. https://doi.org/10.18727/0722-6691/5285

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