The connection between inner and outer debris disks probed by infrared interferometry

The far-infrared surveys of nearby main sequence stars performed since the launch of IRAS have shown that a significant fraction of main sequence stars are surrounded by cold dust populations. These surveys are now culminating with the the DUNES and DEBRIS key projects of the Herschel Space Observatory, which is more sensitive than ever and is able to detect cold dust populations with densities similar to that of the solar system Kuiper belt. However, little is known about the occurence of warm dust populations, the equivalent of our zodiacal cloud. Since 2005, high-precision infrared interferometers have opened a new way to directly resolve these exozodiacal dust populations. Interferometric observations enable to reach dynamic ranges (larger than 100:1) that are generally not achievable with classical spectro-photometric observations. We are currently carrying out a survey to characterise the hot dust populations around main sequence stars. The first results of this survey, performed on the CHARA array with the FLUOR instrument, will be presented in this talk. The results are based on a magnitude-limited sample of stars surrounded by cold dust and on an equivalent sample of stars showing no cold dust emission. The statistics for the occurence of bright exozodiacal disks will be presented, and compared with the Spitzer and Herschel results. The possible (dynamical) connections between the two populations will be discussed. We will also review the results obtained by other interferometers and discuss the on-going projects.