Imaging Stars at the Quantum Compatibility Limit

Abstract:Imaging astrophysical sources with a multi-station interferometer is intrinsically a multiparameter quantum-estimation problem. {Using tools from multiparameter quantum metrology,} we show that time-resolved repetitive or adaptive measurements in an \(N\)-station array suffer a fundamental array-level incompatibility among visibility estimators. Collective measurements, {which coherently process the received starlight across multiple time bins in a single joint readout}, remove the array-size penalty up to an order-unity factor, yielding an asymptotic \(O(\sqrt{N})\) enhancement for the {directional-averaged} SNR of visibility measurement. We then propose a memory-assisted interferometric architecture designed to implement collective readout through coherent storage and joint quantum processing. Imaging simulations and Fisher-information analyses demonstrate that collective measurements improve image reconstruction in near-term arrays and enhance the resolving power of future long-baseline architectures, with pronounced benefits for representative AGN targets such as NGC~4151 and 3C~273. These results highlight collective measurement as a promising building block for future quantum-assisted interferometric arrays for stellar imaging.

Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)

arXiv:2608.29689 [quant-ph]

(or arXiv:2608.29689v1 [quant-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.29689 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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