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(√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.
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BibTeX
@misc{guo2026imaging,
title = {{Imaging Stars at the Quantum Compatibility Limit}},
author = {Xinyao Guo and Haixing Miao and Zheng Cai and Huan Yang},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.29689},
eprint = {2608.29689},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.29689},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Imaging Stars at the Quantum Compatibility Limit
AU - Xinyao Guo
AU - Haixing Miao
AU - Zheng Cai
AU - Huan Yang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/30
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.29689
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.29689
AB - 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(√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.
ER -