Practical applications of liquid mirrors, astronomical surveys, astronomical applications of the Alford and Gold effect

我在未来五年的研究将涵盖天文学和天文学以外的三个主要主题： 1）一个国际财团发起了国际液体镜望远镜项目，该项目包括一个直径为4米的液体镜望远镜天文台。该项目已获得全额供资，包括加拿大的捐款，将于2011年首次亮相。ILMT数据的新奇来自于这样一个事实，即这是第一次大型望远镜将通过一套标准的彩色滤光片，夜复一夜地观察同一条天空。由此产生的数据集将是独特的，因为它的模糊，广泛的区域，最重要的是，提供的可变性信息。我感兴趣的超新星调查，透镜研究，可以说是ILMT最重要的贡献：意外发现。2)铁磁流体变形镜（FDM）的应用。FDM是拉瓦尔首创的一种全新的自适应光学元件。通过涂覆铁磁液体，我们创造了可以用磁场塑造的反射表面，使我们能够制作出随时间变化的复杂表面。我们已经证明，该技术可以实现一个雄心勃勃的目标：允许任意形状和大振幅的入射波前在反射时转换为任何所需形状的出射波前。FDM比传统的自适应光学器件便宜得多，用途也更广。我们将在两个方面开展工作：a）改善镜子的特性。B）演示实际应用。3)我将申请天文学技术的基础上，实验由阿尔福德和黄金最初用于测量光速。我写了几篇论文，提出了新的天文应用：a）观察引力透镜。我现在打算进行天文观测。B）发现并观测极快的时间变化（短至1纳秒），为天文学开辟了一个新的时间窗口。c）我还发现，超快速闪烁器产生的光谱特征可以探测到天文物体发出的脉冲，其时间间隔小于1/10/10/10亿秒。我将在现有的天文光谱数据库中搜索光谱特征。

My research over the next five years will cover three main topics in astronomy and outside astronomy: 1)An international consortium has initiated the International Liquid Mirror Telescope project, which consists of a 4-m diameter liquid mirror telescope observatory. The project has been fully funded, including a Canadian contribution, and will see first light in 2011. The novelty of the ILMT data comes from the fact that this is the first time that a large telescope will observe the same strip of sky, through a standard set of colored filters, night after night after night. The resulting data set will be unique because of its faintness, wide area, and, foremost, the variability information provided. I am interested in supernova surveys, lensing studies and, arguably the most important contribution of the ILMT: serendipity. 2) Applications of Ferrofluidic Deformable mirrors (FDMs). FDMs are an entirely new class of adaptive optical elements, pioneered at Laval. By coating ferromagnetic liquids we create reflective surfaces that can be shaped with magnetic fields, allowing us to make complex surfaces that can vary in time. We have shown that the technology can deliver on an ambitious goal: To allow an incoming wavefront of arbitrary shape and large amplitude to be transformed upon reflection to an outgoing wavefront of any desired shape. FDMs are far cheaper and more versatile than conventional adaptive optics. We will work on two fronts: a) Improve the characteristics of the mirrors. b)Demonstrate practical applications. 3) I will apply to Astronomy techniques based on an experiment by Alford & Gold originally used to measure the speed of light. I have written several papers that propose novel astronomical applications: a) To observe gravitational lenses. I intend now to carry out astronomical observations. b) Find and observe extremely fast time variations (as short as 1 nanosecond), opening up a new time window in astronomy. c) I also found that ultra-rapid pulsators generate spectral signatures that would allow the detection of astronomical objects sending pulses with time separations shorter than 1/10 of 1/ billion seconds. I will search for the spectral signatures in existing databases of astronomical spectra.