A new quantum technique called Stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) can enhance optical very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI), allowing quantum information to be lost without damage, according to a collaborative study in Australia and Singapore. transmission, allowing the VLBI to detect previously invisible wavelengths.
VLBI is a combination of several telescopes around the world to form the observation effect of a telescope with a diameter of about the size of the earth. In addition to shooting the black hole at the center of M87, scientists also used it in the first image of Sagittarius A* recently revealed.
In the past decade, exoplanet research has made great progress, and as scientists have captured images of supermassive black holes, gravitational wave astronomy has become a new field. Thanks to interferometry applications, highly sensitive instruments and flexible global Internet information, observatories around the world have also pushed VLBI technology to its limits.
Classical interferometry is still hampered by physical limitations, including information loss, noise, and the fact that light is often quantum in nature. By addressing these limitations, VLBI can observe astronomy in finer detail.
The key to overcoming this limitation is the use of new STIRAP technology, which involves two interferometric light sources to transmit optical data between two applicable quantum states, free from the usual noise and loss problems when used in VLBI. In order to test the theory, the research team set up two far-flung facilities to simulate the situation when collecting astronomical photos. In the encoder stage, the signal is captured by the STIRAP technology to the quantum memory, which will change the game rules of interference technology, making quantum imaging in optical The band resolution is increased by 1,000~100,000 times.
In this way, asteroids around nearby stars, details of the solar system, stellar surface motions, accretion disks, and potential details of black hole horizons will all be revealed one by one. With the manufacture of next-generation telescopes, the observatory will have another way to capture the most inaccessible universe in the universe. or observed celestial images.
(This article is reproduced with permission from the Taipei Planetarium; the first image is the Very Large Telescope in Chile built by the European Southern Observatory; Source: ESO, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
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