The QuASAR project aims to detect and image accretion disks formed by matter accreted to massive and compact objects like quasars or black holes.

To achieve this groundbreaking experiment, we will point the biggest telescopes ever made to those distant objects and collect photons emitted millions of years ago. Coupled with some of the fastest single-photon detectors, we can determine those photons' arrival time to roughly 30ps (3 hundredth of a billionth of a second), which is the time that light need to travel 1cm.

The method relies on Intensity Interferometry which showed great potential in 1956 by Hanbury-Brown and Twiss, who were able to measure the angular diameter of Sirius (α Canis Majoris). The underlying quantum explanation was later explained by Roy.J.Glauber who received the Nobel prize in 2005.

This project is funded by Swiss National Science Foundation and is a collaboration of many Swiss institutes:

• Astronomy Department of Geneva (University of Geneva)
• Physics Department (DPNC, University of Geneva)
• University of Zürich
• AQuaLab (EPFL)