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arXiv:1107.2939 · Physical Review Letters

Longer-Baseline Telescopes Using Quantum Repeaters

Daniel Gottesman, Thomas D. Jennewein, Sarah Croke

Published Aug 16, 2012• 442 citations
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Abstract

We present an approach to building interferometric telescopes using ideas of quantum information. Current optical interferometers have limited baseline lengths, and thus limited resolution, because of noise and loss of signal due to the transmission of photons between the telescopes. The technology of quantum repeaters has the potential to eliminate this limit, allowing in principle interferometers with arbitrarily long baselines.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.109.070503

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We present an approach to building interferometric telescopes using ideas of quantum information. Current optical interferometers have limited baseline lengths, and thus limited resolution, because of noise and loss of signal due to the transmission of photons between the telescopes. The technology of quantum repeaters has the potential to eliminate this limit, allowing in principle interferometers with arbitrarily long baselines.
Long baseline optical interferometry, by combining the lights from widely-distributed telescopes, is shown to afford pronounced improvement in the imaging resolution in comparison with a single telescope. However, the noise and photon loss in the transmission between the telescopes would limit the length of baseline of interferometer to a few hundred meters. Here, we present a scheme for enhancement of long baseline optical interferometer by using quantum resources- noiseless linear amplifier (NLA) and displacement operation at the photon transmission channels. We exhibit this enhancement quantitatively by calculating higher fisher information compared with those of conventional optical interferometer.
Recent advances in quantum information theory have led to the development of quantum imaging methods that would allow optical interferometers to achieve resolutions surpassing the conventional diffraction limit. The use of quantum technologies also has the potential to create optical interferometer telescopes with baselines of hundreds of kilometers, achieving unprecedented imaging resolution. We present results of laboratory experiments advancing quantum interferometer techniques for astronomy. We demonstrate quantum-optimal imaging of an artificial star-like source using a phase-stabilized 170 km-span optical interferometer, pointing the way to astronomical interferometers with resolution orders of magnitude better than any current telescope, with outstanding applications for studying exoplanets, the formation of star systems, and tests of General Relativity near the event horizon of a black hole.
In optical and IR wavelengths, typical astronomical sources have only one or a few photons arriving at a time, meaning the light is really a quantum object. This makes interferometry over longer baselines a major challenge, requiring a truly quantum interference measurement between distant elements in the array rather than local measurements which can be combined later. Luckily, our ability to manipulate and preserve quantum states has taken major strides forward in the last few decades with the rise of quantum information technologies. I will explain how entangled quantum states and a technology called "quantum repeaters" can make possible telescope arrays with much longer baselines than existing facilities, and discuss progress towards making such quantum telescopes a reality.
Optical Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) offers the potential for unprecedented angular resolution in both astronomical imaging and geodesy measurements. Classical approaches face limitations due to photon loss, background noise, and their need for dynamical delay lines over large distances. This review surveys recent developments in quantum-enabled optical VLBI that address these challenges using entanglement-assisted protocols, quantum memory storage, and nonlocal measurement techniques. While its application to astronomy is well known, we also examine how these techniques may be extended to geodesy–specifically, the monitoring of Earth’s rotation. Particular attention is given to quantum-enhanced telescope architectures, including repeater-based long-baseline interferometry and quantum error-corrected encoding schemes, which offer a pathway toward high-fidelity optical VLBI. To aid the discussion, we also compare specifications for key enabling technologies to current state-of-the-art experimental components. By integrating quantum technologies, future interferometric networks may achieve diffraction-limited imaging at optical and near-infrared wavelengths, surpassing the constraints of classical techniques and enabling new precision tests of astrophysical and fundamental physics phenomena.
Astronomical observations allow us to better our understanding of the universe. As we observe smaller and more distance features, we run into the diffraction limit of our observation system. This limit is a function of the wavelength observed and the size of the primary aperture used. We can synthesize a larger primary aperture by implementing interferometry. Long baseline optical interferometry would lead to significant improvements in astronomical imaging resolution. Building optical interferometers with free space baselines becomes significantly more difficult as the baseline increases. A promising alternative is to use optical fiber to connect telescopes. Fiber-based interferometers are much more susceptible to phase noise than their free-space counterparts due to inhomogeneities in the fiber medium. This leads to significant degradation of interferometric signals used for astronomical measurements. We implement phase stabilization techniques used in quantum communications to stabilize an optical interferometer with a 170km pseudo-baseline. We use a quantum optimal measurement technique with this interferometer to resolve the extent of a source four times smaller than the diffraction limit of the system within 1.5% error. These results bring the potential for a full-scale on-sky long baseline interferometer significantly closer. A 350km baseline optical interferometer at 1550nm would allow us to resolve sub microarcsecond features in the universe.