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arXiv:2212.07395 · Physical Review Letters

Interferometric Imaging Using Shared Quantum Entanglement

Matthew R. Brown, Markus Allgaier, Valérian Thiel, John D. Monnier, Michael G. Raymer, Brian J. Smith

Published Nov 21, 2023• 35 citations
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Abstract

Quantum entanglement-based imaging promises significantly increased resolution by extending the spatial separation of optical collection apertures used in very-long-baseline interferometry for astronomy and geodesy. We report a tabletop entanglement-based interferometric imaging technique that utilizes two entangled field modes serving as a phase reference between two apertures. The spatial distribution of a simulated thermal light source is determined by interfering light collected at each aperture with one of the entangled fields and performing joint measurements. This experiment demonstrates the ability of entanglement to implement interferometric imaging.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.131.210801

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Quantum entanglement-based imaging promises significantly increased resolution by extending the spatial separation of optical collection apertures used in very-long-baseline interferometry for astronomy and geodesy. We report a tabletop entanglement-based interferometric imaging technique that utilizes two entangled field modes serving as a phase reference between two apertures. The spatial distribution of a simulated thermal light source is determined by interfering light collected at each aperture with one of the entangled fields and performing joint measurements. This experiment demonstrates the ability of entanglement to implement interferometric imaging.
It has been shown that shared entanglement between two telescope sites can in principle be used to localize a point source by mimicking the standard phase-scanning interferometer, but without physically bringing the light from the distant telescopes together. In this paper, we show that a receiver that employs spatial-mode sorting at each telescope site, combined with pre-shared entanglement and local quantum operations can be used to mimic the most general multimode interferometer acting on light collected from the telescopes. As an example application to a quantitative passive-imaging problem, we show that the quantum-limited precision of estimating the angular separation between two stars can be attained by an instantiation of the aforesaid entanglement based receiver. We discuss how this entanglement assisted strategy can be used to achieve the quantum-limited precision of any complex quantitative imaging task involving any number of telescopes. We provide a blueprint of this general receiver that involves quantum transduction of starlight into quantum memory banks and spatial mode sorters deployed at each telescope site, and measurements that include optical detection as well as qubit gates and measurements on the quantum memories. We discuss the relative Fisher-information contributions of local mode sorting at telescope sites vis-a-vis distributed entanglement-assisted interferometry, to the overall quantum-limited information about the scene, based on the ratio of the baseline distance to the individual telescope diameter.
Very-long baseline interferometry has been one of the major astronomical imaging techniques used in the last century for tasks ranging from measuring diameters of stars to imaging black holes at the center of galaxies. However, the usual heterodyne technique is typically limited to radio wavelengths for the longest baselines due to fundamental noise from the local oscillator, which is used to measure the collected electric field in time at each aperture. Further, the visible and near-infrared (V-NIR) wavelengths do not easily allow such measurements due to their higher frequency; so, for optimal performance, the collected fields must be directly interfered with each other to measure the spatial correlation of the stellar light between each aperture. This implies, at V-NIR wavelengths, a practical limitation on the distance between the receivers and the brightness of stellar sources since bringing the fields together is lossy. Several theoretical proposals have promised reduction of this loss by using single photons along with quantum networks and/or quantum memories. We demonstrate a proof-of-principle, table-top experiment of one proposal by interfering path-entangled single photons generated from parametric down conversion and the light collected from a quasi-thermal source occupying a single spectral-temporal mode representing light from a star. The interference signal was then used to recover the spatial autocorrelation of two source distributions: 1 and 2 mm separated double slits. We compare this to a theoretical model and see good agreement. This model allows further comparison to other weak, non-single-photon, local-oscillator sources such as coherent states.
Long-baseline interferometry will be possible using preshared entanglement between two telescope sites to mimic the standard phase-scanning interferometer, but without physical beam combination. We show that spatial-mode sorting at each telescope, along with preshared entanglement, can be used to realize the most general multimode interferometry on light collected by any number of telescopes, enabling achieving quantitative-imaging performance at the ultimate limit pursuant to the baseline as afforded by quantum theory. We work out an explicit example involving two telescopes imaging two point sources.
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.
A protocol of measuring interferometric visibility function using imperfectly entangled states shared between remote telescopes is proposed. We demonstrate how quantum entanglement can be utilized to increase the baseline size of telescopic arrays thereby providing substantial enhancement to the resolution of direct-detection interferometric measurements. We demonstrate, through a comprehensive analysis, how errors in visibility measurements and in the intensity distribution of a distant object show dependence on the entanglement degree of the shared quantum resource. We analyse the feasibility of the protocol using currently available technology and identify the nature of sources that can benefit most from it.