Ernst Karl Abbe (23 January 1840 – 14 January 1905) was a German physicist, optical scientist, entrepreneur, and social reformer. Together with Otto Schott and Carl Zeiss, he developed numerous optical instruments. He was also a co-owner of Carl Zeiss AG, a German manufacturer of scientific microscopes, astronomical telescopes, planetariums, and other advanced optical systems. He basically paved the way to modern telescopes and now quantum telescopes.
The resolution of an optical imaging system – a microscope, telescope, or camera – can be limited by factors such as imperfections in the lenses or misalignment. However, there is a principal limit to the resolution of any optical system, due to the physics of diffraction. An optical system with resolution performance at the instrument's theoretical limit is said to be diffraction-limited. The diffraction limit is the limitation of today's telescopes. Now Quantum mechanic can change that!
There are two primary reasons to build bigger telescopes. A. sensitivity: larger collecting surfaces see fainter targets, much in the same way as the eye’s pupil enlarges at night in order to sense fainter objects. B. larger telescopes allow us to see smaller details on astronomical targets.
A new telescope breaks the record every 4-5 years., but since the first telescope, the optical layout of telescopes has fundamentally remained unchanged. It is now time for a quantum telescope, a giant leap for astronomy - make use of the fundamental scientific changes brought along by quantum mechanics. Eventually processes such as stimulated emission*, **quantum entanglement and *** quantum non-demolition measurements may allow to overcome the classic diffraction limit in astronomy and thus to obtain high-angular resolution even with small single-dish telescopes.
* Stimulated Emission: Is the process by which an incoming photon of a specific frequency can interact with an excited atomic electron (or other excited molecular state), causing it to drop to a lower energy level.
** Quantum entanglement is a physical phenomenon that occurs when a group of particles are generated, interact, or share spatial proximity in a way such that the quantum state of each particle of the group cannot be described independently of the state of the others, including when the particles are separated by a large distance.
*** quantum non-demolition measurements is a special type of measurement of a quantum system in which the uncertainty of the measured observable does
"Outlook from : Original document: https://arxiv.org/abs/1403.6681 -A. Kellerer
The set-up that has been outlined may turn out to be impractical. But other methods can certainly be imagined to overcome the diffraction limit on a telescope. It is therefore not our aim to suggest this particular setup. The issue of interest are the intriguing properties of light as revealed by quantum mechanics and their conceivable implications for astronomy. Elementary particles do not experience space and time as we do on our scales. Does space and time even exist for elementary particles? Or do space and time in our familiar conception merely emerge in a larger network of particles? Quantum mechanics predicts effects that had never been imagined with the classical wave-formalism of light, effects that can be extremely counter-intuitive. As Michio Kaku says: “It is often stated that of all the theories proposed in this century, the silliest is quantum theory. In fact, some say that the only thing that quantum theory has going for it is that it is unquestionably correct.”. Today’s telescopes still rely solely on classic processes, such as the diffraction and interference of light, that are well explained by the wave-formalism. But this will change and intensity interferometry, developed by Hanburry-Brown and Twiss (variety of correlation and anti-correlation effects in the intensities received by two detectors from a beam of particles), can already be mentioned as an example: it relies on quantum mechanics to explain correlations in light intensities .
However, while intensity interferometry uses the quantum mechanical characteristics of light, it does not improve upon the diffraction limit. Since intensity interferometry was proposed in 1957 further advances in quantum optics have made it possible to overcome the diffraction limit in microscopes and also in lithography. Eventually processes such as stimulated emission, quantum entanglement and quantum non-demolition measurements may allow to overcome the classic diffraction limit in astronomy and thus to obtain high-angular resolution even with small single-dish telescopes. If the future of data processing lies in quantum computers, the future of astronomical imaging lies in quantum telescopes."
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