High time resolution astrophysics and extremely large telescopes

Extremely large telescopes are an opportunity to fully explore a new frontier in astrophysics. Observations of short time-scale phenomena ranging from flares in normal stars through magnetospheric phenomena in pulsars to turbulence in AGNs will be possible. Observations of quantum phenomena represent an opportunity to directly infer the physical conditions in an astronomical source in an unique way. New detector technology will enable a complete characterisation of the incoming optical radiation with no additional optics. However the current designs for the 42m European ELT have 5 active or adaptive mirror elements each one of these will introduce their own degree of timing noise with specific temporal characteristics. Here we explore some of the implications of HTRA in the extremely large telescope era.