A Stellar Ranging Scheme Based on the Second-order Correlation Measurement

Abstract

Abstract Stellar ranging is the basis for stellar dynamics research and in-depth research on astrophysics. The parallax method is the most widely used and important basic method for stellar ranging. However, it needs to perform high-precision measurement of the parallax angle and the baseline length together. We aim to propose a new stellar ranging scheme based on second-order correlation that does not require a parallax angle measurement. We hope our solution can be as basic as the parallax method. We propose a new stellar ranging scheme by using the offset of second-order correlation curve signals. The optical path difference between the stars and different base stations is determined by the offset of the second-order correlation curve signals. Then the distance of the stars could be determined by the geometric relation. With the distance to stars out to 10 kpc away, our astrometric precision can be better compared to Gaia by simulation. We also design an experiment and successfully demonstrate the feasibility of this scheme. This stellar ranging scheme enables further and more accurate stellar ranging without requiring any prior information or angle measurement.