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arXiv:2609.18079

Progress in quantum telescopes

David R. Gozzard, Fiona H. Panther, Andrew G. White

astro-ph.IMquant-phSubmitted Sep 16, 2026• Announced Sep 17, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

Classically, the angular resolution of a telescope is limited by its diffraction limit: the ratio of its observing wavelength to its diameter. Developments in quantum information theory over the past decade have uncovered quantum-optimal measurement methods that enable super-resolution imaging beyond the diffraction limit, and many laboratory-scale demonstrations of these methods have been performed over the past decade, culminating in the recent first on-sky demonstration of quantum-enhanced astronomical imaging. In this Review, we detail the current progress and achievements of these theoretical and experimental results, discuss the astronomical science cases motivating the development of higher resolution telescopes, summarise the technological challenges facing the practical application of quantum imaging technologies to astronomy, and present a vision for the realization of \emph{quantum telescopes} with imaging resolutions orders of magnitude better than current observatories.

Comments
23 pages, 13 figures, review paper

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Classically, the angular resolution of a telescope is limited by its diffraction limit: the ratio of its observing wavelength to its diameter. Developments in quantum information theory over the past decade have uncovered quantum-optimal measurement methods that enable super-resolution imaging beyond the diffraction limit, and many laboratory-scale demonstrations of these methods have been performed over the past decade, culminating in the recent first on-sky demonstration of quantum-enhanced astronomical imaging. In this Review, we detail the current progress and achievements of these theoretical and experimental results, discuss the astronomical science cases motivating the development of higher resolution telescopes, summarise the technological challenges facing the practical application of quantum imaging technologies to astronomy, and present a vision for the realization of \emph{quantum telescopes} with imaging resolutions orders of magnitude better than current observatories.
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The use of probabilistic amplification for astronomical imaging is discussed. Probabilistic single photon amplification has been theoretically proven and practically demonstrated in quantum optical laboratories. In astronomy it should allow to increase the angular resolution beyond the diffraction limit at the expense of throughput: not every amplification event is successful - unsuccessful events contain a large fraction of noise and need to be discarded. This article indicates the fundamental limit in the trade-off between gain in angular resolution and loss in throughput. The practical implementation of probabilistic amplification for astronomical imaging remains an open issue.
For more than a century, the diffraction limit has defined the resolution achievable by passive optical imaging systems. Although some resolution improvement can be gained through classical data processing of the image, it is limited by the noise arising from quantum nature of light. Minimizing the effect of this noise requires quantum treatment of optical imaging. By reformulating imaging as a problem of quantum measurement and estimation, it becomes possible to identify optimal detection strategies that recover spatial information previously thought inaccessible. This review summarizes the theoretical framework that underpins this development, from the formulation of quantum Cramer-Rao bounds and Chernoff bounds to the construction of receivers that attain them, such as those based on spatial-mode demultiplexing. We show how these methods can beat conventional imaging in the classification, localization, and imaging of sub-Rayleigh incoherent sources. We then discuss extensions to multiparameter and partially coherent scenarios, and highlight the unifying connections between estimation and discrimination tasks. Finally, we survey recent experimental demonstrations that approach quantum-limited resolution and outline emerging applications in microscopy, astronomy, and optical sensing.
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