Ground-based Optical/Infrared Interferometry: High Resolution, High Precision Imaging A technical development white paper submitted to the OIR Panel of the Astro2010

Over the past decade, optical interferometry has demonstrated that its combination of high resolution and high precision can make unique contributions to astrophysics. Interferometers have grown in aperture size, baseline length, number of apertures, and spectral resolution. At the same time, methods to circumvent the limitations of interferometry are being introduced. Further increases in sensitivity through larger apertures and adapative optics, improved imaging flexibility through baseline bootstrapping, improved beam combination/fringe detection systems, and advances in reduction and analysis software to extract the maximum of information from the fringe data will allow us to realize the potential of optical interferometry for fainter and more-complex sources. 1