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arXiv · 1605.03799

Conservative classical and quantum resolution limits for incoherent imaging

Mankei Tsang
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Abstract

I propose classical and quantum limits to the statistical resolution of two incoherent optical point sources from the perspective of minimax parameter estimation. Unlike earlier results based on the Cram\'er-Rao bound, the limits proposed here, based on the worst-case error criterion and a Bayesian version of the Cram\'er-Rao bound, are valid for any biased or unbiased estimator and obey photon-number scalings that are consistent with the behaviors of actual estimators. These results prove that, from the minimax perspective, the spatial-mode demultiplexing (SPADE) measurement scheme recently proposed by Tsang, Nair, and Lu [Phys. Rev. X 6, 031033 (2016)] remains superior to direct imaging for sufficiently high photon numbers.

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Mankei Tsang. 2016-05-12. Conservative classical and quantum resolution limits for incoherent imaging. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500340.2017.1377306

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