= Robert Hanbury Brown
{c}
{title2=1916–2002}
{wiki}
= R. Hanbury Brown
{c}
{synonym}
<Robert Hanbury Brown> and <Richard Quentin Twiss> developed <intensity interferometry>, using correlated fluctuations in detected <light> rather than direct combination of optical field <amplitudes>. Their experiments established how the correlation changes with the separation between detectors.
Applied to <stars>, the method connects spatial coherence to apparent angular size. It measures a statistical property of the arriving <photons>, allowing stellar diameters to be inferred even when atmospheric fluctuations make direct optical phase measurements difficult.<Correlation between Photons in two Coherent Beams of Light by Robert Hanbury Brown and Richard Quentin Twiss>[1956 experiment: spatial intensity correlations]{ref}<A Test of a New Type of Stellar Interferometer on Sirius by Robert Hanbury Brown and Richard Quentin Twiss>[Sirius stellar-interferometer test]{ref}
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{title=Portrait of <Robert Hanbury Brown>}
{description=Via Wikimedia Commons; credits and usage information are on the linked source file page.}
{source=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_Hanbury_Brown.tif}
{width=250}
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